Chance Part 1
by June Maris
Summary: Skye Maggis, with the help of her friends, competes in a contest to live and journey in the Pokémon Region.
1. Chapter 1

Part 2 "The Same Sky" has been posted.

**Chance Part 1**

_Prologue_

_In a section of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a large cluster of islands, including Hoenn, Jhoto, Kanto, Sinnoh, Unova and many others. Strange creatures as well as humans inhabit these countries. These creatures are called Pokémon. Humans and Pokémon live together in a society similar, if not more advanced, than ours is. Despite the similarities, in hopes that we would not taint it, they have blocked us off from their world, save a few franchising industries. Those industries, TV shows, books, video games, have given us all a taste of what their world is really like. Governments are in contact with them to keep good relations, and we've all heard a bit about them in history class, but no one has ever been there, until now._

_I wanna be the very best, that no one ever was. _Dun dun dundun_. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause._

"Johnny, Hurry up, It's starting!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I heard his boots clunk down the basement stairs. "I brought chips," he said, as he sat down on the shag carpet next to me.

We were up at 7:00 o'clock on a Saturday morning to watch the first episode of Pokémon on Cartoon Network. We had it on DVD, but it was always more fun to watch it live. They were playing it in honor of the special announcement they said they'd be making.

'_You look like your ready for bed, not for Pokémon training. I hope you don't think your going to train in your pajamas.'_

'_Oh no professor, I got messed up this morning and I was a little late, but believe me I'm rea-'_

"Are you two seriously still watching that?" Johnny and I jumped at the sound of my younger sister, and his older one, behind us, holding her stupid white cat Snuffles in her arms. "Skye, that is seriously _lame._"

"Oh, go back to the mall," I replied with malice.

"Yeah!" Agreed Johnny.

"Whatever. I'll go with my _boyfriend_."

"Which one!" I shouted as she stomped up the stairs. She was tall, perfectly curved, and blond; I was shapeless and skinny, had short lank black hair and, though I was thirteen years old, less than 4 feet tall (shorter than my little brother). She was too popular for her own good, despite her brattiness. I wasn't.

Johnny said, "Brianna's a brat. We've got to stop paying attention to her."

"We can't even get away from her in the basement!" I said exasperated.

'_I think I should warn you, there is a problem with this last one.'_

After a while, it clipped to commercial. My brother sighed and said, "The new episodes stink, only the old ones are good."

"Tell me about it."

Just then, a person appeared on the screen; she had pink hair tied in two neat loops on the sides of her head. She spoke, "Hello Americans, you might know me as a character from one of your favorite video games. My name is Natalie and I am a Nurse Joy of the Hoenn Region and I'm here to tell you about a chance you might have, to live and adventure in the Pokémon Regions." We both gasped. "Two people from your country, a boy and a girl, from the age of 10 to 17, will be chosen through testing to be allowed to come. In order to take the test, you must complete every handheld Pokémon game that has been released. This includes game boy color games like Red and Blue, and Ranger and Dungeon games. In every district there will be stations set up for you to buy a package containing all the games and a system on which to play them." Here they showed a picture of several, brightly colored, briefcases. "The nearest one to your location is on _St. Charles Illinois 79 E. Main Street._ The Packages are $200 each and the stations will open up on October 24. We hope to see you there"

It clipped to a Big Mac commercial.

"Sweet! I'm thirteen and you'll be ten in a week, we both have a chance!"

"But how the heck am I going to get 200 dollars in two weeks!"

"Wow Johnny, you don't think I'd loan you money?" I'd been baby-sitting for four years. I had $4000, Johnny had 0.

"Hehe… Thanks Skye."

* * *

><p>I looked across the field of rope and people that was the line to the Pokémon station. The line turned back to next to where we were standing and then back again and on and on. If I stood on top of a rock, I could just see small roof diagonal to the right in the distance. It was set up at the Pheasant Run golf course; the only outdoor plot of land in St. Charles big enough to accommodate this gathering.<p>

"_Seriously_?_"_ Johnny beat me to it, "Seriously, it will take hours to get to the front!"

"You brought your Soul Silver, I brought my copy of _Jeremy in Verdanturf Town; _we should be occupied for a while."

"Look there's a sign."

**Testing Specifics**

**When you reach the front of the line, there is a small test, that will determine if you will be allowed to buy the testing case. If you fail the test, you may still buy a limited addition Pokémon case. The testing is on:**

**Physical Capability**

**How much pain you can stand**

**Health**

**If you are prone to or have incurable diseases**

**Mental Capability**

**If you are up to the challenge**

**Confidence, Trust and Quick Thinking**

**Essential traits of a good trainer**

**Brain Function**

**To match those of the Pokémon Region**

**Past interest**

**If you enjoyed Pokémon before the contest.**

**If you would truly like to live in the Region for the rest of your life**

**If you are 10-17 years old**

**Overall: If you will be a friend to Pokémon**

**We wish you the best of luck**

"What! I'll fail at all those things!" I said in distress.

"No. You're overreacting Skye, especially with the friend thing… Unlike Me! I didn't even bring a pencil!"

"I didn't either, we should go back."

"Geeze, you two, calm down; They'll have extra pencils."

Johnny and I turned around to find our favorite, fifteen year old cousin rolling toward us on his Wheelee shoes, with a stupid grin on his face.

"I'll give you some of mine, but I'm going to win anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"Thanks coz." We said gratefully. I continued, "Sorry I didn't call to tell you about this," I knew he didn't watch the show anymore, but he played the games, "How'd you find out about it?"

"They did a segment on the news. Actually it was all over the news."

"How did you get $200 dollars?"

"What is this 20Q? But if you must know I begged my parents for it until they were at risk of exploding." Tony is spoiled. He's an only child, so it's to be expected. As well as Brianna, Johnny and I have two older brothers and we'd be crazy to expect a cent from our parents.

"Do you think we'll have to beat every game in the case even if we already have?" asked Johnny.

"If you're chosen?" Johnny nodded, "Probably"

Johnny groaned, "I've already beaten a ton of them"

"Doesn't matter, you won't be chosen anyway. This place has been open since 6 in the morning and I heard no one passed yet."

"But that was 5 hours ago," I gasped

"Come on, someone has to have passed by now!" Said Johnny "Or else no one would be in this line it's so hopeless."

"Well, it has to be selective; there will be about ten million kids trying out and they have to pick 2" Tony paused, "And even if there was a 1 in a billion chance that you could live in the amazing world you've heard about and dreamed of all of your life… What would you do?"

"Stand In a line for hours" Johnny grumbled.

Tony said "_And_ pay $200, _and _beat every Pokémon game, _and _take a huge test."

"This isn't the only test!_"_ I asked.

"I don't think this is the only test," he continued in a hushed voice. "After I heard about the contest on the news, I googled it. The website I found said that this is just preliminary testing. Everyone chosen through this first testing, and beats the case, will have to take a big test. And that will decide on the final two."

"What will the test be on?" I asked.

"That wasn't on the site. Maybe they tell you as soon as you pass this testing, maybe at where you take the big test, maybe you find out during the test."

I lost any confidence I still had, when he said that. "I'll just go home now."

"No!" I started shocked at his intensity. "Sorry, but no matter how small you're chance is, it's still there. And I don't want you to miss it."

Johnny, who had been silent for a while, was gazing at the sky, "I wonder if the sky is the same in the Pokémon Region."

We looked up with him as the line slowly inched forward.

* * *

><p><em>One beaten game and a finished book later…<em>

"Seven hours!" Johnny howled as he rolled around on the ground. He was, after all, only ten. "How long can this line be? We didn't even bring food!" He let that last word drag out for a few seconds. Drama king.

"Shut up! Shut up!" The person in front of us finally lost it. He had scruffy brown hair, was about twice as tall as us and muscular. "You've been screaming for the past 20 minutes! If you shut up for one minute, I'll give you my lunch."

"Pleeease?" Begged Johnny, all traces of his tantrum gone.

The guy in front of us sighed heavily, obviously annoyed, but threw the brown paper bag at him anyway. Johnny caught it and the sandwich in it was gone in a minute.

"Hey I wanted some."

"Relax there's another one," and he tossed it to me.

"What about me," whined Tony.

"You can have the chips."

"What kind?"

"Doritos."

"Cool."

I was half way through my sandwich when I realized how close we had gotten to the front. Johnny noticed as well, "About time, it's six o'clock," And, being October, it was almost dark out.

"Let me in!" Johnny and I winced as we heard the most annoying voice in the world. Brianna was trying to go under a rope at the front but the lady working there wouldn't let her.

"You'll have to wait in line like everybody else."

"Let! Me! In!" And at that, Brianna shoved the poor person to the ground and scrambled under the rope. She sat down in a chair and put a sucker thing (Electrodes, I think they're called) on her forehead. The machine it was connected to whirred for a few seconds, then buzzed and she frowned.

"That's enough!" said an officer Jenny who seemed to have come from the limited edition case booths area.

"But-"

"No!" said the officer Jenny, "You didn't pass anyway."

The lady said, "If you would like to buy the limited edition-"

"Why would I spend money on those dumb games? I'm going home." She ducked back under the rope and headed our way.

"What were you doing Brianna?"

"I wanted to go on a fabulous adventure, journey to a world never before seen by people outside the Pokémon Region."

"You fit none of the requirements on the sign up front. You've never even played one of those games in your life, and I doubt you would spend $200 on them."

"No. But I would spend 200 of _your_ dollars on them and make Johnny play them." She threw a wallet at me and it was full of, _surprise_, my money. I scowled at her. "I took it from your backpack before you left."

"If I had gotten to the front, after seven hours, without any money, I would have-!"

"Later," Brianna interrupted, and trotted off.

"At least she gave it back," said Tony.

"Oh, I hate her… Was that the test?"

"Apparently" Said Johnny, because someone else had already gotten hooked up to the machine, heard the buzzing noise and walked away down a turn in the rope to a place where it seemed everyone was buying limited edition cases of different colors.

"Five people left, then it's our turn," said Tony, a little anxiously.

"Who want's to go first?" I asked.

"Me," said Johnny.

"Four left," Said Tony, "And I'll go second. That okay Skye?"

"Fine." However, if I went first, maybe the bugs in my stomach would stop sooner. One in ten million, I shouldn't even be here.

"Three."

It'll just be a big disappointment, and I wouldn't even last a day in the Pokémon Region.

"Two."

I was saving that money for collage. Would I really throw it away on such a little chance?

"One."

Yes.

"My turn," Said Johnny.

He went up and sat down in the chair. The nurse put the electrodes on his forehead. The machine whirred for five seconds… then buzzed. Johnny's face fell.

"Would you like to see what quality you missed?"

"Quali_ty? I only missed one? Cool! What was it?"_

"_You missed physical capability. We aren't testing for strength, but if you can handle taking an attack like a thundershock. Not a lot of people in the Region could actually pass that test. If you would like, you can still buy the limited edition case this way," Said the lady._

_He walked over to me and asked, "Can I still buy it?"_

"_Of course Johnny, but you'll still have to pay me back."_

"_Thank you," he said happily and he stayed to wait for us._

_Tony rolled up and sat down. She put the sucker things on his forehead; the machine whirred then buzzed._

"_Would you like to know what qualities you missed?"_

"_No thank you."_

"_If you would like to buy a limited-"_

"_I wouldn't have come if I wasn't going to." He said smiling. He didn't seem disappointed but I could tell he'd hoped a little. He rolled over and stood by Johnny to wait for me._

_I sat down in the chair and the nurse stuck the electrode to my forehead. It was cold and damp. As the machine whirred, my brain felt fuzzy and I couldn't think straight. My mind cleared as soon as the whirring stopped. But instead of buzzing, it beeped. I looked up in confusion at the lady and saw a look of shock on her face; similar looks were on Tony and John's._

"_D-Did I pass? It could-, the chance-"_

"_Congratulations!" she said, "You are the first person to pass at this station! I was starting to think no one would today."_

"_I-I passed? No it couldn't be."_

"_Skye you passed! Awesome!" Johnny was jumping up and down, "You're going the Region, you're going to the Region!"_

"_Not really," Said Tony. "The chance is much greater but… Oh Skye this is so cool!"_

"_R-Really?" I looked at the station worker, and she nodded, "Awesome!" and I started jumping around too._

"_Please step through this door to buy the testing case. You will come out through the other side."_

"_Okay, you guys go buy limited editions and I'll go buy the testing case. Meet you on the other side."_

"_Bye Skye."_


	2. Chapter 2

Author note: Melissa Oetke is the only character based on a real person. My freshman Spanish teacher Profesora Oetke.

The room behind the door was small. There was maroon wall paper and green carpet. It had a 3-person couch on the right wall and on the left there were plants and a table. Covering the whole back wall was a desk. Sitting behind it, reading a magazine, was a soft looking woman with short brown hair that sort of curved in on her head. The magazine said Pokémon discoverer.

She looked up when I came in "Oh" she exclaimed and hurriedly hid the magazine before I could get a good look at the cover, "Did you pass?" She asked slightly flustered.

"Yes I did."

"Okay come here." Once I was in front of the desk, she put a case on it. It had a white stripe wrapped around the bottom, but the rest of it was covered in tiny pictures of Pokémon like in the video games. "You will need to fill out this form" she handed me a pencil and clipboard. "You may sit over there," She pointed to the couch and I went and sat on it.

It was four pages long, and just asking about basic information like name and address and stuff, but I had to sign a few agreements. One said that I couldn't use cheats on any of the games.

When I handed it back to her, she put a pad of ink in front of me. "Please press your hands into this." I did so, "Now press onto this page." She put a blank page in front of me.

"What do you need my handprints for?" I asked.

"The gaming system is specially made to play every handheld Pokémon game. It is also made to constantly scan whoever is playing it at the time to make sure that the person who passed is the only person who is playing it."

"Okay," I pressed my hands down. "What's your name?"

"My name is Melissa Oetke," She looked down at the forms, "And I see your's is Skye."

"Yeah…" I hesitated, not knowing asking this was off limits, "Please tell me what the Pokémon Region is like."

She sighed and started to scan the papers, "I'm really not supposed to tell anyone anything, but… It is very much like your part of the world, except there's more nature, better technology, and we have Pokémon."

It was my turn to sigh, "I've always wondered what real Pokémon look like. I know they must look something like what they are in the video games, but they have to have fur and scales and stuff, right?" She nodded, "If I were to go there, seeing what they really look like: that would be one of the best things about being there."

She opened the case and plugged a cord into something, "I'm loading your handprints into the console." She looked at me strangely and asked, "What would another best thing be?"

"Understanding how Pokémon think, if they think more like humans or animals."

"With those kinds of questions you'd make a good Pokémon scientist."

"Thanks, I can't get my hopes up though, it probably won't happen."

"Probably," She gripped a device that was shaped like a price tag scanner, then she slowly slid the end around the white strip at the bottom of the case and it left a strange assortment of squares in its path. She continued until she came back to where she'd started.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"It holds all the information on the form."

"Oh, so it's like a bar code?"

She looked confused, "Is that the thing companies have to put on video game cases before they sent them over here?" I nodded, "Yes." She handed me the case.

"It was nice meeting you, Ms. Oetke."

"It was nice meeting you too, Skye."

/\\\\\\

They were right outside the back door when I came out; we started walking home.

"Skye! Skye! Let me see it! Let me see it!" Said Johnny.

"What, the case?" I held it up for them to see.

"That's so cool! Mine is just plain yellow."

"It's bright yellow." I said.

"Mine is blue," said Tony.

"Did they take your hand prints too?" I asked.

"No they didn't. They took your's?"

"Yeah, then they loaded it into the handheld to make sure I'm the only one that play's my games, so don't you guys touch it. Oh, Tony call your parents and see if you can spend the night."

"We won't touch it," said Tony, "And good idea." He took out his phone.

"Skye, This. Is. So. Cool! Let's stay up all night starting our games. I can't wait to see the look on Brianna's face."

"That will be sweet. Oh shoot, I never asked when I need to beat the games by, or what I need to do when that time comes." I said in a panic."

"Relax Skye, they'll probably call you or something, did you give them your phone number… or something?" Said Tony.

"That was number sixteen on the form."

"Then they should call you. And my mom said yes."

"Cool. Hey, there's Pizza Hut; let's get some to bring home."

We got in line, it was unusually long, all the losers from the station must have come here afterwards.

"Hey look," said Johnny, "The guy that's in front of us is the guy who gave us his lunch. Hey mister," he said to him, "You must be really hungry."

"What? Oh it's you," He said, irritated. "Yes, I'm hungry, why wouldn't I be? You took all I had to eat for seven hours."

"Thank you for that," Said Johnny. "You want to share pizza? We'll pay."

"Er, thanks," He said a bit less unhappily.

"So how old are you?"

"I'll be 18 in about a month"

"You're just barely within the age limit from the top and I'm barely in it from the bottom, funny. Did you buy a limited addition case?"

"Yes, but I left mine in my car."

"You have a car? What kind is it?"

The guy seemed to like Johnny more as the conversation continued. When we got to the front, we got an extra large cheese pizza with extra cheese and cheese-filled crust and a booth in the back so as not to be disturbed.

"So what's your name?" Asked Johnny.

"My name's Roy. Did you guy's get limited editions too? Mine's green."

"We did," Said Johnny motioning to Tony and himself, "But Skye got a testing case," He said proudly.

"Really? Can I see it?" I held it up for him to see. "Nice. Well, good luck."

"Thanks, but the odds are still like 100,000 to 1 or something."

"What are the Squares-," He was interrupted because at that moment someone jumped over his head, grabbed my testing case and continued jumping over tables, heading toward the exit.

"Hey!" Yelled Roy and he started chasing after him. The person who took it had jumped off the nearest table to the door, which had been opened moments ago by a teenage couple, but Roy caught him by the collar of his shirt before he touched the ground. The thief was well built but was terrified being in the grasp of someone twice his size.

Tony was calling the police on his cell phone; Johnny and I were running up to the thief. "Noooo! Let me go. Let me go! I just wanted to go to the Pokémon Region." He whined. I had to yank hard to get my case out of his grasp.

Tony was done on the phone and had rolled over to us, "The police will be here in a few minutes… Skye, I don't think we should tell anyone you have a testing case. If you make it public, people will only want to take it, like this guy."

I moved the case behind me and backed against a wall, "You're right, we should tell the police not to put this in the news," I looked around at everyone staring at us, "Or at least not to say our names."

The police came, we told them what happened, asked our little favor, and they took the thief away.

"Thank you again Roy." I said, "Would you like to come over to our house for a while?"

"Sounds good," He said, "I'll drive."

/\\\\\\

We got home at 9 o'clock to find my two older brothers (actually both older than Roy) Tyler and Mark on the couch watching football. I waved the box of food in front of them, "We brought Pi-" Mark grabbed the box, "-zza." They were now stuffing their faces with the five pieces left in the box, racing to see who would have to have only two. "You're welcome."

"Mmurr mmoo." They mumbled

Tyler gulped, "Who's that."

"This is Roy, we met him at a Pokémon testing station today… none of us won."

"A real shock, Skyjack," one of them said, the other said, "You still playing that?"

"Whatever, let's go to the basement."

Our basement isn't one of those old dusty damp basements, and it really wasn't a sacrifice to come down here to watch Pokémon, because Johnny and I used this place as our bedroom. It was the size of the whole first floor, It had a ceiling, two windows, was carpeted, and painted and it had seven of those chairs that looked like a half circle, all were different colors. Our parents bought those at a garage sale. And, the best part, it had a mini fridge.

When Roy saw the bunk beds to the left of the stairs, he said, "Cool place, is this your room?"

"It's ours," said Johnny, "Skye, I know we agreed not to tell anyone that you won but we can at least tell our family."

"But should we really tell Brianna?' I asked.

"Oh yeah."

"You're probably right," Said Tony, "But this isn't the kind of thing you can keep a secret for long, she'll find out eventually."

"Well, for now let's not tell her about it." I said. "Okay, let's look at what's inside our cases."

"You aren't holding me back." We sat in a circle on the carpet and opened them.

Every inch of Roy, Tony and Johnny's cases were covered in pockets holding forty multiple colored games, and each one was a Pokémon game that had been out over the years. Even Pokémon pinball was in there and a few others I had never heard of before. They were made for all different kinds of gaming systems. There were DS chips, game packs, and some made for Game Boy Color. The only place not covered in games was the center of the bottom lid of the case. Strapped in on that part was the gaming system. They all matched the color of the case holding them, it was double screen, but the screens were slightly larger than a DSi XL and, unlike any other system, it had three slots.

My gaming system had pictures on it like my case. Its buttons were metallic looking, but slightly squishy when I touched them. The only other difference was that there was a red hardcover book inside my case, about 8 by 8 inches. It was thick and said "Information" on it.

The boys were talking excitedly about all their games but I was just staring at that book, wondering what it held. They noticed after a minute and looked over the top of my case.

"Read it Skye."

"Okay:

**INTRODUCTION**

**In the Pokémon Region, children must pass a small course before allowed to go on a Pokémon Journey. That course's test will be only a section of the Exam that will determine if you will be chosen to go to the Pokémon Region. You will be tested on our history, basic information, and Pokémon biology. You also need to know the name of every Pokémon and their evolutions. Regarding each Pokémon's number you only need to know their general area on the Pok****é****Dex (is it in the 50's or 60's etc.). The information needed to study these and other useful things to know are in this book. At the end of this book, there are two pullout study guides to help with the main subjects. Pokémon numbers is a subject too broad to put into a study guide and can easily be studied with family, friends and the Pok****é****Dex in this book. One study guide should be used as a practice exam (though it will be very different from the actual exam). The actual exam is written answer, not multiple choice. The last section of the test will be on personality.**

**Good luck to you**

Wow." I finished.

"Skye," Said Tony. "I really think you shouldn't put yourself through the trouble. They're gonna end up picking the two with the best scores and there's gonna be some genius that'll just look at the book and know all the answers."

I was speechless. Last time Tony was the one that kept me going. If he really didn't think I should waste my time…

"I think you should go for it Skye," It was Roy. "If you'll try, I'll help you study and stuff because you can't tell your family."

"I'll help too Skye," said Johnny, "And I think you should try."

"Well maybe I'm wrong," Said Tony.

"Okay then. I'm doing this, slight chance or not." They smiled at me. "What should I do first? Play the games, look at the study guides, or read the book?"

"I took a studying class once," Said Roy, "Reading the book before the games will help you get them done faster. As for the study guide knowing the questions before the reading will help you focus on finding the answers."

"Good call on the doing the games last. But I'm going to read the book a few times anyway, so I'll read it first, then look at the study guide, read it again, and last the games."

"And we'll start by playing the games," Said Tony and we laughed.

Johnny started with one of the new games called opal; Tony and Roy started with the earliest releases: Red and Blue.

I started with the table of contents.

**Introduction…...4**

**Table Of Contents…...6**

**Dates and Other Information.…..…...7**

**Journey Options …...9**

**Basic Knowledge..…..…...40**

**Journey Course Test….…...100**

**Pokémon Region History and Geography…...122**

**Pokémon Biology….…...165**

**Pok****é****Dex…...175**

**Glossary…...356**

**Index…...367**

**Pullouts…...379**

Ugh.

Roy crashed on some chair cushions. He really shouldn't have slept over, but my parents wouldn't care. They all fell asleep around 12:30. Johnny with his game still on (I saved and turned it off for him). Johnny's on the lower bunk and Tony's on the air mattress we kept for him in our large closet to the underneath the staircase, which is where I decided to keep the testing case. Right now, it's four and I'm still reading the _Journey Options _section. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy; Apparently 10 year olds were supposed to be able to read it. The test is on March 1st, about 5 months from now... I could be ready by then. It's supposed to be in the… North Western part of San Francisco. Roy could drive me… Parents busy… _Other Information_… Never come… Back…

"Skye. Hey Skye, Wake up."

"Sleep," I murmured.

"Mom made breakfast before she left."

"I'm up," I sat up straight and was rewarded with a face full of ceiling.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said dizzily and flopped back down again.

"Help me wake up Tony." It took an anvil to wake that guy up.

I went down the ladder and saw that Roy was already up and playing his Blue version while sitting in the blue chair. Johnny and I flipped Tony over, opened his eyes and blew on them. This was the only surefire way to get him up. However, this time it worked to well, he sat up fast enough so that when his forehead hit my nose it started bleeding.

"Oh man," I said.

"Double whammy," Said Roy, "I'll get a paper towel."

"Well, the test said you're able to take pain." Said Tony, "Sorry Skye."

"It's okay." I said as Roy handed me a paper towel, "Thanks. What did mom make Johnny?"

"French toast."

"Nice! What time is it?" I glanced at the clock. "Eight. Were probably the only ones up, but let's take precautions. I want three slices."

"Four," Said Tony.

"Six," Well when you're 6 foot 10 you had to eat a lot.

"I want three, I'll get them."

"Thanks Johnny." I said and I went to get milk from the mini fridge.

Tony retrieved the information book from the top bunk, "If memory serves you were the last one awake before I fell asleep. How far did you get?"

"I got to page… Forty two."

"Dang. How late did you stay up?"

"4:00, I think."

"_Do ya like waffles - yeah we like waffles - do ya like pancakes - yeah we like pancakes - do ya like French toast - yeah we like French toast- do do dodo can't wait to get a mouthful - waffles!_" Johnny came downstairs singing the Waffles song holding a big plate of French toast.

We ate our share and went back to what we were doing last night. I was reading in the yellow chair, Johnny was playing Opal in the white one, Tony was sitting in the red chair, and Roy was back in the blue.

After an hour we heard footsteps on the stairs, I pushed my case under the bed, grabbed a book cover off my shelf, and got it on just before Brianna turned to look at us.

"Hey you were the girl that cut in line at the station yesterday," Said Roy.

"It's not like I was going to wait 7 hours, and if I did end up winning, they would've had to let me in anyway"

"They would never let anyone as horrible as you in, Brianna," I said.

"Says you." She said in her most annoying voice.

"There's a personality section at the end of the big exam you have to take to win."

"And how would you know that?"

"Brianna, there is a new invention out. It's called the internet, have you heard of it?"

"Fine then. Who are you?" She directed at Roy.

"I'm Roy."

"And what are you doing here?"

"I'm playing a game."

"Oh," She said all huffy, "Fine! Never mind, I'm going to eat French toast." And she stomped out.

"If there's any left," Said Johnny.

"You fat pigs, you ate them all!" We heard Brianna yell at our brothers, and we giggled.

"What'd she come down here for?" asked Roy

"Beats me." I said.

By the time 10:00 came around, I had just finished _Journey Options._ "Roy thanks for the advice but I'm going to start the games now."

"Too boring?"

"Partly, but I think it's going to take me longer to get the games finished, and I'll leave at _least a month for me to study."_

"_That sounds like an okay plan to me, but it's up to you."_


	3. Chapter 3

For the next two weeks, I played the testing case games constantly. Sometimes Johnny played with me; sometimes it was Roy or Tony, or a combination of the three. I appreciated their support and it might be why I'd gotten through six games already. Right now Roy and Johnny were sitting across from me at Colonial and I was nearing the end of the Fire Red version.

"I hate Giovanni!" I whined, "I've lost to him three times!"

"Rearrange your type match ups," Said Johnny through a mouthful of ice cream.

"I've done that already, he keeps switching out."

"I'll trade you something from my LeafGreen," offered Roy, "They're pretty strong."

"I think the information book said I couldn't do that. Thanks though."

"Take a break, eat your Ice Cream." Said Johnny, I shook my head.

"You know it's sweeter when it's 50 cents," he teased. Colonial was having it's month long 50 cent ice cream cone marketing thing again. We came every day when that happened, but why they were doing it in November I didn't know.

"Okay, fine," I started licking my cone.

"Tell me what the _Journey Options _section said again," Requested Johnny.

"It just said there were a lot of paths to follow. You can be a Ranger, Researcher, Breeder, Coordinator, a regular old Trainer, and a few other things. But it also tells you about which path you should choose if you want a certain career, like being a nurse, gym leader, scientist, officer, teacher, entertainer, day care person, working in the media and a lot of other stuff and it gave information about each one."

"Have you chosen anything?" Asked Roy.

"Right now I'm thinking about a mixture of trainer and researcher, but that could change- Wait, I shouldn't be choosing anything. There is almost no chance that I'm going to win. I shouldn't be getting my hopes up."

"You did choose though."

"Fine. What would you guys choose if you could have gone?"

"Ranger!" Said Johnny without missing a beat, "I'd be all like hero and stuff."

"That's cool," I said, "Roy?"

"No idea. I might've started out trainer and switched to something else later," Then he said in alarm, "Skye, your ice cream!"

Too late, my scoop of ice cream slid on to the floor. "Oh well," I said and went back to Giovanni.

"Johnny, was she a game addict, before the contest?"

"She played as often as a normal person would."

"Guys, I just really want to not totally fail," I said.

"Poetic," Said an irritating voice from the booth next to us, parted by a half wall. Brianna stuck her big head over the top of it, "Fail at what?"

"Is it really any of your business?" Said a peeved Johnny.

"I think it is, considering she's my sister."

"I thought I wasn't since the last time we spoke." She would like nothing more than me being disowned.

"I know that can't change… yet. So for now I think I deserve to know why you're playing your video games so much. Mom and Dad might not notice anything but I do."

"Why would we tell you?" Asked Johnny.

"I'll _tell_ Mom and Dad,"

"They won't care," My voice wavered a bit and she looked at me like she had won the fight; video game abuse was the only thing our parents cared about. They were never around though, so they wouldn't know, unless Brianna told them. Thankfully Johnny chose that moment to fling a soggy cherry off his spoon at her face. While she was wiping herself off with a napkin, we got up and walked out.

"She is really annoying," Said Roy.

"You just noticed," Said Johnny sarcastically, "Do you think she heard what you said about not getting your hopes up?"

"No. Otherwise she wouldn't have asked what I didn't want to fail at. Let's forget Brianna for a while and have fun," I suggested as we got into Roy's car, "Should we go home or-"

"We should go to Roy's house!" Johnny and I had been trying to get Roy to take us to his house, but as always:

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"One of the ten most annoying lines in the world," I said.

"What would the other nine be?" asked Roy.

"Maybe I'll tell you, if you take us to your house."

"How 'bout we go to Tony's house," He responded.

"Okay fine," Said Johnny, Tony's house was fun, "But you _will_ take us to your house."

"Later though." He said.

* * *

><p>Not only did Tony's parents give him the 200 dollars because he was spoiled, but because they were loaded. They weren't "Richie" Rich but compared to the average middle class, they had two more floors to their house. Their indoor <em>pool<em> had a diving board, their basement had a bar, and they had more flat screens than anyone I knew. It also explains his expensive Wheelees.

When we rang the doorbell, Tony answered the door in his pajamas. Johnny and Roy laughed out loud and I snickered, because his pajamas had footies.

"You guys are always in your pajamas when I come over." He said to Johnny and I defensively.

"Not footie pajamas," I said between giggles.

"Whatever, come in, I'll be right back," He ran up the stairs behind him. We walked into the foyer, took our shoes off and left them on the yellow and maroon patterned rug.

"When did footie pajamas become in for teenagers?" Roy tried to say it seriously but he cracked up when he said teenagers, so it sounded like tee-ee-ee-nagers, Johnny and I cracked up even before he got to that part. Soon, though, Tony came back, so we had to stifle our laughter quickly.

He appeared on the balcony (Much higher up than most normal people's) "Get you're butts up here," he called down to us and we trooped upstairs. After that we had to go up another floor, this one without a balcony, and file into a small library at the far right of his house. There could have been windows on three sides of this room if it weren't for the book shelves lining every wall, except for the furthest one to the right, which had a desk with a computer and windows above it. Tony sat down at it while we gathered around him.

"Skye," Said Tony as he turned on the computer, "I'm sure that _special_ book of your's has a lot but I've found a ton of stuff on the Region," Here he opened up a file.

I was holding the Information book in the inside pocket of my jacket; I took it out, "It's pretty big, it might have the stuff you've found in it."

"We'll see about that," he opened up a folder, "Let's see this one," he opened up Google earth and up popped the Region.

My jaw hung open, similar looks were on Johnny and Roy's faces. It was an overhead view of the entire Pokémon Region. It was huge, bigger than America and Canada put together. When Tony saw our faces he made a cocky, "Hmm, hmm," Noise, like he expected applause.

When he said that I snapped out of it and flipped to the back of the book, "It said there were pullouts back here… Here they are!" I opened the book wide and flipped it on it's side so everybody could see my tiny map. Tony's was obviously more impressive and-

"It can scroll in," He scrolled in so you could see about one-eighth of what you could see before but now you could see more of the change in color around the map. About five percent of it seemed to be made of civilization, the rest was nature. But given the size of the whole country there was still a lot. A little bit seemed merged, like there were towns beneath the trees or in the trees surrounding the cities. "Can't go any further though, Google said there was some kind of transmission keeping their satellites from scrolling in any closer. Just their defensive way of saying they were hacked. Actually, before recently, The same transmission kept them from getting any pictures at all."

"Well duh," I said, now leaning against a book shelf with my arms crossed, trying to act like I knew all of this, "That's why no one's ever actually seen a picture of the Region before."

He shot me a frosty look and continued, "I also found out that there is force that keeps anyone from going or flying over there, except when they're there for official business."

"How do you know that?" Asked Roy.

"A lot of the information I found was from the _official_ website and-"

"There's an official website?" I interrupted him.

"Yes, there is," He responded, "It's called _Immigration to the Pokémon Region._"

"Let me see it," I demanded.

"First I want to tell you the most important information I weeded out."

"Shoot," Said Johnny.

"First that all the people there speak English, which is why this is only happening in America… that and the fact that we are most like them physically an mentally compared to the rest of the world."

"Okay, why do they speak English?" I said in disbelief. I hadn't really thought about it until now but I would have had to learn a whole new language.

"Well, it just sort of worked out that way. I mean, most of them came from English speaking countries, before they closed off from the world and it is tweaked but it developed similarly. Another thing: it said is that 2861 people were able to get the testing case."

That's it, he just said it. He didn't make us beg for the number or drive us crazy for an hour trying to figure it out. Maybe he didn't know how important it was and that's why he didn't make it a big deal. Or he knew how important it was and he wanted to give me a break for once.

"2-2861?" I stammered.

"2861," He said grinning broadly at me.

"Are you kidding?" Asked Roy who had had just sat down on a loveseat, "Skye Actually has a real, a really real chance to go the Region?"

"Didn't she before," Said Tony still grinning broadly, "_Actually her chance is even bigger than that because you know they're taking one boy and one girl. Skye is a girl and only- hold on a sec, let me check," He opened up another file on the computer, "And only 928 of those people are girls, mostly because of that part of the preliminary testing that said you had to have taken some kind of interest in Pokémon before the contest. So Skye, you have a 1 in 928 chance of winning."_

_My jaw hung open again, "You promise you're not lying?"_

"_Promise."_

_Then I did little hop-ey dance around the room, Johnny joined me, Tony and Roy laughed and were obviously happy for me. The number was way smaller than I could have possibly hoped for… But it was still big. I stopped dancing and breathlessly sat down next to Roy I was still happy though. Johnny sat on top of me and I pushed him off so he was sitting next to me._

"_We should celebrate." Said Tony._

"_I haven't won yet."_

"_But this is big." Tony insisted._

"_I guess you're right. What do you guys want to do?"_

"_We should have a party!" Said a still ecstatic Johnny._

"_How 'bout we just get a Portillos cake." I said, trying to keep this within reason._

"_Is that your answer to everything?" Said Tony. "Chocolate cake?" At our house whenever something worth celebrating happened we always got Cake. Always chocolate. Always Portillos. We had a 'cake jar' that we would put all of our change in to pay for it. We got it for everything: holidays, birthdays, good grades. If someone was going to summer camp we'd have cake before they left._

* * *

><p><em>Later after we got our cake and had eaten most of it, we swam in their pool. Johnny and I kept our swim suits at their house because we were here so often. And where else would we swim anyway? So we didn't have stop at home to get them.<em>

_Tony loves his pool. He swims in it so often he looks permanently pruney. So, as you can see, he is a very good swimmer. Tony tried to teach Johnny and I how to swim, because we couldn't afford lessons. Johnny got it, but Tony couldn't really 'teach' me. Even so, I love the feeling of being underwater, so I hang out in the shallow end. Right now he's getting ready for a pike with one-and-a-half summersaults, whatever that is, off the diving board._

_Right before he jumped off Roy yelled, "Your suit," to Tony, trying to throw him off. It worked and he belly-flopped with a painful sounding crack. Johnny laughed so hard he fell off of the inner tube he was lounging and eating cake on. As he swam back to the surface he caught what was left of the cake in his mouth._

_Roy tried to get out before Tony could swim back to the surface but Tony got to him before he could get two feet. They then had a water wrestling match which, despite Roy's obvious size advantage, Tony would win with his water advantage. That got me thinking…_

"_Hey you guys."_

"_Yeah." Said Roy._

"_Could we… Stage a pretend water Pokémon battle?" I said hurriedly, for fear of being laughed at. Tony did snicker a bit but the other two took me seriously._

"_Sure, sounds like fun," Said Roy._

"_Me too," agreed Johnny. "I call being the other trainer!" _

"_I want Roy to be my Pokémon," I guess I wanted to practice with a 'type disadvantage.'_

"_I will obey your every command master," He joked, he wasn't very good at that._

"_Tony's mine," Johnny called._

_We all got into place. Johnny and I stood on the tile. He was at the deep end, I was on the shallow end, with our 'Pokémon' in the water near us. Making it all the more realistic was that the pool was a perfect rectangle, matching that of a regular battlefield. _

"_Tony!" Johnny yelled, "Dive!" Tony then dove deep under water, pushed of the bottom and head butted Roy's chest._

_Johnny had just commanded Tony to go back underwater when I said, "Splash!" But nothing happened. So I yelled "Dive," but he had obviously not learned the attack yet, because he just flailed in the water, which gave me an idea. _

_When Tony came up to finish the dive attack I said "Roy, use flail." It was super effective; Tony looked pretty beat up. "Roy, finish him! Use tack-"_

"_Hydro pump!" Commanded Johnny and Tony spit a mouthful of water at Roy's eyes. Poor Roy jerked back and hit his head against the pool wall and feinted._

* * *

><p><em>Later, after Tony's dad preformed first aid on Roy, we all got in our pajamas, settled down on the tiny couch in the guest bedroom and watched one of Tony's old Pokémon movies. Like all movies from the Region containing Pokémon it was animated. It was about a guy having to live in a cave during winter with an Ursaring for a month and when he left, it came with him. About halfway through Roy got bored and started throwing the surplus of popcorn at everyone. We threw it right back and started a popcorn war. Once the movie ended and there was a healthy coating of popcorn everywhere, that Roy's mother would later blow a gasket about, they all fell asleep. Roy right there on the couch. Now I'm playing my seventh game (I decided on pearl). I finished FireRed around one o'clock… That means it's November eighth, I guess… 4 o'clock and I still can't fall asleep…. Maybe I should get…. Some tea…<em>

* * *

><p><em>Skye… Skye…<em>

"_Skye!"_

"_Whaa?" I shot up confused._

"_What are you doing on the floor?" Asked Johnny. _

"_I must have… must have… fallen asleep when I got up to get sleepy time tea," Everyone was awake and looking at me, "What are you doing waking me up?"_

_He shrugged and started eating the popcorn off the bed. _

_I looked around for my game. With a start I realized I hadn't saved. I found it on my bed and it, mercifully, was still on. The new system must have a really long battery life. I quickly saved and plugged it in the charger. _

"_Is your head feeling better?" I asked Roy._

"_A bit. I still have a massive headache though."_

"_Sorry about that," Said Tony._

"_I'm sorry too," I said, "I guess I wouldn't make a very good trainer."_

"_Think about what you just said. Tony and I were the Pokémon. Are you really going to assume what kind of trainer you are based on that?" _

_I smiled. "Guess not."_

"_Either way," He joked, "I'd make a great Magikarp."_


	4. Chapter 4

About two weeks later, on November 22, I had gotten through 8 more games for a total of 14. I was now playing number fifteen, which happened to be Sapphire, on the orange chair in the basement. It was the first game I ever played and easily my favorite.

I heard Johnny coming down the stairs, "How was the meeting?" I asked. After I won the testing case, Johnny decided to join the video game club at school.

"It was fantastic! This time they raffled off an old Kirby game: Nightmare in Dreamland. I won!" He held it up proudly for a moment then sat down sat down next to me to play it. After a minute he asked, "Remember when I talked to Tony at Pizza Hut? Right after we got the cases?"

"Yeah."

"And I asked him how old he was? He said he would be 18 in a month. That was a month ago."

"Really? We have to get a cake-."

"Wait, lemme talk. So I went through his car and found the exact date on his drivers license; It's tomorrow! We can throw him a surprise party! Mom and Dad are on business trips, Tyler and Mark are going to meet some friends tomorrow, and Brianna will be at a sleepover. We should ask his dad first if he has one planned." One time we asked Roy about his family. He briefly responded that his mom lived in California and that he lived with his dad.

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked "We don't even know where he lives."

"His license has his address on it." And so we went to our older brothers' room.

Our brothers owned a small lawn mowing company that our dad started for them. They were still trying to get it off the ground, which is why they still lived with us. The first thing they did with their money was to buy a laptop. They said it was their most significant investment. But we have yet to see them do anything with it but play video games and believe me, they do that _all_ the time. Well, they weren't right now, thankfully, or else we wouldn't have been able to print off directions to Roy's.

We then went to the garage grabbed our yard sale tandem bike and shoved off.

"I wish he would give us his house number instead of only his cell. Then we could just call his dad."

"Ya know, maybe he doesn't have a house phone."

"Who doesn't have a house phone?"

"I don't know!" I said slightly exasperated, "People who think they only need cell phones."

We were silent for a while then: "I'm cold."

"I told you to grab a warmer jacket." I should have probably gotten one too, my fingers were starting to go numb. "We'll be there soon."

/\\\\\\

About ten minutes later we reached a derelict apartment complex. The outside walls were grey and cracked, the roof was flat, and most of the windows had beat up air conditioners sticking out of them.

We almost left our bike lock at home; now I was glad we'd brought it. Seeing no bike racks we locked it to a tree before we walked up to the entrance. There was only one door outside this section of the complex, most of the green paint it had once been covered with was peeled off or covered in graffiti. We looked around for an intercom button or a doorbell or something but came up empty, so we tried the door and found it unlocked. We walked into a sad little hallway with several doors on the sides and a cage elevator at the end.

"Okay." I murmured, "Check his drivers license to see if we're at the right place."

"I didn't take it, what if he wanted to drive? I copied it down on a piece of paper." He pulled it out, "And it says this is the right place."

"What's his apartment number then?"

"516"

So we took the rickety elevator up to level 5 and walked up to his door. Or at least we hoped it was his door, all that was left was part of the 6.

"Are you sure he's not home?" Asked Johnny.

"Yeah, he told me he was going to the bowling alley with some of his senior friends."

We stood there for another minute.

"You want to knock?"

"Yes." And I gingerly reached out my arm and gave three quick raps on the door.

"Geeze." Muttered Johnny and he nudged me out of the way so he could knock loudly enough that whoever was inside could here.

After a minute we heard uneven footsteps coming toward the door, and several heavy latches unlock.

The door opened.

A washed out, saggy man with thick stubble stood before us. "Helllooo." This guy was wasted, big time.

"Hi." We responded. I continued uncertainly, "Are you Tony's father?"

"Yesss. Who wans ta know?"

"I'm Jo-" Johnny started to answer before I elbowed him.

"We're from his school," Johnny looked at me like I was crazy. Who would believe that? We were seven years younger than him, but the man was drunk so, "He asked us to pick up some stuff for him."

"Well come in."

And so we did, against my better judgment. We had a difficult time picking our way though the clothes and garbage strewn floor.

I remembered the original plan, so, while we were walking around trying to look like we were looking for something, I tried to make small talk with the guy.

"So how's Roy?"

"Fine."

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"So, where's Roy's room?"

"That way." He said, not indicating anything whatsoever.

"I hear his birthday's coming up." I said heading in the right direction.

"Is that ssso?" He said, still slurring. Oh geeze, would this guy even know?

"Yeah… Have you planned anything for it?" I was getting nervous.

"No." I noticed Johnny was picking at the pockets of some of the clothes on the floor.

"W-well," I started stammering, "Do you know if anyone is?"

"No."

"Thanks Mr. Clance." Said Johnny saving me from speaking, "We'll go now."

"Okaay." He mumbled and laid down on the couch and immediately started to snore.

Johnny and I got out of there as quickly and quietly as possible. Don't ask me why, he looked like he was sleeping as soundly as Tony does.

As we started down the hallway Johnny said, "Guess what I got?"

"What?" "Roy's address book."

"He has one?"

"Yep. It was in one of the jackets I looked through."

"At least somebody was thinking. That guy was giving me the creeps, I couldn't think straight... Poor Roy."

"That must stink, I hope he isn't like that all the time."

"Me too." After that we got into the elevator and thought in our own little worlds for a minute.

"Why didn't you want him to know who we were?" Johnny asked.

"I have a feeling Roy didn't want us to come here. And if his dad remembers us when he wakes up I would rather him not be able to tell Roy that we did." He nodded in agreement as we walked into the foyer.

We were silent for another minute, then Johnny said, "This might be why he wouldn't give us his home number."

"Your right, and it's probably why he'd never take us here."

We had started unlocking the bikes when Johnny asked, "What should we do now?"

"We have a party to plan, remember?"

/\\\\\\

By the time we got home it was 2 o'clock (Johnny's game club was made of early risers). We sat down at the kitchen table perpendicular to the sliding glass door leading on to our rotted wooden deck. Our house was built into the side of a small slope, so even though the deck was on the same level as the front door it was ten feet above the ground. It overlooked our expanse of land leading up to the forest surrounding us. I looked out at it. That forest was my favorite place in the world. When we weren't in the basement, that's where we were. Up in the high branches or down below, protected by the large canopy. When it snowed you could always tell exactly where all the fallen trunks were. Like white sprinkles on white frosting.

"We should go hang out in the woods after the party tomorrow."

"Yeah, we haven't done that in a while." He agreed. "What should we do first?"

"The party should start at 5:30... So lets call Roy and tell him not to come over to our house until that time tomorrow, and not to come over today. We'll say it's because… because our parents have the day off today and tomorrow and they want to spend the time with us… and that they're leaving for a date around five tomorrow."

"Wouldn't that be nice…"

"Then we'll call some of the people in his phone book and see if anyone is already throwing him a party and invite them to ours."

So we called Roy. After three rings he picked up.

"Hey, can you talk?"

"Yeah, we're playing Halo. Three people, two controllers. I'm taking a turn out."

In the background I heard "Craig! Shoot!"

And Roy yelled, "Shut up, Eric! I'm on the phone!" Boy was I lucky, I hadn't thought of accidentally calling the people Roy was with. Now I knew their names. "What's up?"

"Our parents are off work today and tomorrow and we want to spend the day with them. So don't come over until around 5:30 tomorrow, that's when they're going out… Can you come over tomorrow?"

"I was planning on it."

"Okay, have fun with Halo. Bye!"

"K-Bye."

We don't have big consoles like Wii, PlayStation, or Xbox, so we can't play games like Halo. We don't really like games that violent anyway.

I looked over at Johnny, he was staring intently at a page in the phone book. The page looked like it had been doggie-eared multiple times and it was full of numbers that had all been crossed out except for one at the bottom.

"This phone number must belong to someone important." He said without looking up. "Probably someone that would throw him a party."

"I don't think we should call it."

"Why?"

"Well… It's the only one in the book that doesn't have a name above it."

"I'm calling it anyway." He started dialing.

"Are you sure?" He pressed the call button. "Put it on speaker."

After more rings than I had ever heard on a phone, an woman answered: "Hello?"

"Hi, do you know Roy?" Asked Johnny pleasantly.

"How did you get this number?" Was immediately asked of us.

"Um, we-."

"How?" She asked aggressively.

"We just want to throw him a surprise party."

Again, she insisted, "How did you get this number!"

"It was in his address book and your number looked important." He said hurriedly, "We wanted to know if you knew if anyone was planning a surprise party for him and if not, invite you to one we we're planning." And after a long silence, "We're his friends."

"You will not give this number to anyone, you will not remember this number, and you will give that book back to Roy."

"Yes, yes, we promise. But please, please don't tell him we took it. Please?" He pleaded. "We went to his house, and I don't think he wanted us to."

"When you say us do you mean-?"

"My sister and I."

She sighed "Does she promise too?"

"I do." I said.

Another sigh, "Okay, I won't tell Roy you took his phone book, but I will check to see that he has it back tomorrow." She paused and then said a slightly calmed but woeful voice, "I haven't planned him a party, I don't know if anyone has… And I can' t go to anything you might be planning." Then she hung up.

We sat there for a minute wondering if that was who we thought it was.

/\\\\\\

After that we called another important looking number, this time one with a name above it.

"Hello, Jordan?"

"Hi."

"Do you know Roy."

"Yeah."

"We're throwing him a surprise party, do you know if anyone else is?"

"Nope, no party. I would know, I'm his best friend."

"Great. Would you come? It's tomorrow at 5:00."

"Sounds good. Can I help at all?"

"Well, we have his phone book but we don't know who should really be invited…"

"No problem, get something to write with. Some people that should come are: Michael, Trev, Craig…" He continued on with a list of twenty or so people. We thanked him and told him where to come tomorrow and were about to say good bye, When I realized I had no idea how to throw a teenage boy's birthday party.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"What should we have at the party? Like should we plan activities or something…"

"Who are you anyway? How old are you?"

"Um… we're his cousins…"

"Okay." He sounded unbelieving, "You'll mostly need TVs, music, a ton of food, and video games."

"We don't have any major consoles."

"I'll bring mine. I have a PlayStation, a Xbox and a Wii. I'll also bring controllers and some games. As for the music… I know a really good playlist on Youtube. So set up three TVs and a laptop."

"Thanks so much!… And do you think we should put up a birthday banner? And maybe some white Christmas lights?"

"Hey, why not?"

"Great, thanks again!"

"Kbye."

"Bye."

After that we called and invited the list of friends that Jordan suggested (Craig and Eric we would call later) Only two weren't coming. We told those who were coming to park their cars a few blocks away, so as not to give Roy any hints.

It was decided that the party would be held in our room. It was huge and pretty empty except for the bed, chairs, mini fridge, and TV. We hung up white Christmas lights on the ceiling and found a birthday banner and hung that up too. We covered the bed with a giant black sheet and shoved the rest of our stuff inside it and strung it with lights. We brought a folding table and chairs down from the attic. We put the table against the wall opposite the stairs and put a tablecloth on it. While we were in the attic we found a dart board and decided to bring that down too, we put it on the wall opposite the bed. And last we set the laptop up behind the curtain covering the bed and connected it to our sister's speakers next to it.

Then we got in our pajamas and played our games on the couch in the family room. By the time I'd finished Sapphire it was 10 o'clock and I realized we hadn't told Tony about the party. So I called him.

"What, Skye? I'm sleeping."

"Roy's birthday is tomorrow. We've planned a party. You should be here at five."

"…Wait, What!"

I spoke very slowly, "Roy's… birthday… is… tomorrow."

"I heard you but why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Sorry, I forgot."

"You forgot," He mumbled, "What can I do to help?"

"Your great, you know that?"

"Thanks," He mumbled.

"If you want to help, it would be great if you ordered and bought a chocolate cake from Jewel with 'Happy 18th Birthday Roy' on it." We couldn't serve Portillos cake to that many people. To expensive and not enough cake.

"Simple enough, I'll get a ride from my dad."

"Thanks so much." I looked at the sleeping boy next to me, "Johnny conked out; I've got to get him in bed. Bye."

"Bye."

I was going to wake Johnny and bring him downstairs but then I remembered why we came down here in the first place: our beds were covered with stuff, so may as well sleep on the couch. I turned off his Kirby and ran downstairs to the testing case buried deep in my closet, put away Sapphire, and decided to tackle Pokémon pinball. That one was going to take forever. I went back upstairs and sat next to Johnny on the couch. I caught twenty Pokémon before I was asleep with my head on his lap.


	5. Chapter 5

The first thing we did when we woke up at eleven was to call the pizza man and order fifteen pizza's to be delivered before 5 o'clock. Thank god they had a two for ten special going on right now. After that we rode to the store (on separate bikes) bought pop, chips, dip, chicken, water bottles and plastic silverware and plates. I carried the heavy stuff on the rack on the back of the bike I was using and Johnny carried the rest on his handlebars. It wasn't easy but we made it home. Our brothers and Brianna left while we were gone. After we filled some coolers with the drinks and put the rest of the stuff went on the table, we brought down three other TVs that were in the house (The one in the family room, Brianna's and our brothers') and set them up against the side of the stairs. Then I worked on Pokémon pinball until Tony came at four, precariously carrying the cake while wearing his Wheelees. The cake was then transported safely to the table downstairs.

Now the three of us are waiting in the foyer for the guests to arrive.

"Do you want to know how we did it?" I asked Tony. He didn't reply.

"He told me a while back," Said Johnny, "And I snuck a peek at his drivers license."

He grunted in response.

"We borrowed his phone book," We could tell Tony, "And called his friend Jordan; He told us who we should invite."

He continued to look at the door.

"Are you mad?" Johnny asked.

Again, he didn't say anything.

"Hey," I said starting to get worried, "I'm really sorry that we didn't tell you about the party earlier." Then I rambled, "We were doing so much and when we settled down we were too exhausted to think about anything more complicated than videogames. And when-"

Tony interrupted, "It's not that. It's-"

_Ding dong, ding dong._

"Sorry Tony," I said, "We'll talk later."

I looked through the window and, thankfully, it was Jordan, first to arrive. I opened the door.

"Hey, come get the stuff in from my car, I need to park it." He took a close look at us, "What are you, ten?"

"I'm fifteen."

"I'm thirteen."

He looked at Johnny, "Yeah, I'm ten."

"I guess it doesn't matter, if you're his cousins."

Tony looked at me sideways but Jordan didn't notice.

We ran down to the driveway, which is practically on the other side of the house. And from his car each of us grabbed a console and a bag of games and remotes. He drove the car away while we brought the games to the basement. We had actually figured out how to set up the Wii before the doorbell rang again. I went to answer it while the boys continued to fumble with the Xbox.

It was Jordan at the door again, this time with the pizza man next to him.

"We're having the party in the basement, the door's around the corner." I pointed down the hallway to the left.

"K," He went to the door, "I'll set everything up."

"How much do I owe you?" I asked the pizza man.

"Eighty-two fifty-three."

_Ouch_. I took the pizzas and put them on the curved stairs behind me, dug into my pocket, gave him the money and a thirteen dollar tip. He left and I carried the pizzas to the basement and put them on the table.

I looked at the row of TVs, all except the one from the family room had a console connected to it and a stack of games on top of it. "Is everything set up?" I asked.

"Yup," Said Johnny happily.

"Great. Jordan, what was the name of that playlist?"

"'O's 51'."

I looked that up and the list was full of music that, I thought anyway, was good. I started it.

"That's the one," He said.

"Thanks so much Jordan, for all the help," I said.

"Yeah," Agreed Johnny.

"No problem. You guys did a great job with everything."

"Thanks. Tony, could you plug in the twinkle lights?"

"Got it." He said and the ceiling glowed.

"It's finally all ready!"

"Not a moment to soon," Said Johnny, "It's five O'cl-" _Ding dong_.

"Be right back," I said and went to get the door. Three people were their and I could see more coming down the street. I showed them to the basement and checked them off the guest list. Then I sat down to wait for the rest.

* * *

><p>Boy were we lucky. By 5:20 everyone on the list was downstairs playing videogames, watching TV, or talking. No one had parked their car in the driveway. And, from what one told me, most of them had parked on River dr., a good ways away from here. I kept watch out the front window for Roy's car but got board after a minute and started playing Pinball again. Suddenly I looked up and there was Roy walking down the sidewalk to the door, his car parked in the driveway. My heart jumped. I cracked the door a bit, hoping he wouldn't notice the movement, and ran downstairs.<p>

"Shut up! Pause the games! Hide! Turn off the lights!" I practically shouted. Lots of people hid in between the TVs, or behind the bed curtain or under the food table. Johnny and I hid behind the white chair. It was pitch black in here (the tiny windows' curtains were drawn), so we weren't too particular about where we were hiding. I whisper, "Jump out and shout surprise when Tony hit's the lights." Tony was behind the mini fridge right next to the light switch and twinkle lights plug.

_Ding dong. _Oh, I hope he'll just come in.

_Ding dong._

After a minute I heard the door shut and footsteps. I breathed a sigh of relief. The basement door opened and when he was halfway down the stairs Tony turned on the lights.

I think I misjudged the amount of sound twenty-four seniors could produce.

Roy almost fell down the stairs but when he got to the bottom he was grinning broadly. He looked around a second for Tony, Johnny, and I while he was surrounded by his loud friends being slapped on the back and "Happy Birthdayed".

After everyone settled down a bit and he could get away, he went over to Tony, who was closer to him than us. He said something (We couldn't hear, it seemed the room had reached the normal volume limit and that was still very loud) and Tony shook his head and pointed at us.

Roy came over and raised his voice slightly so we could hear him, "Thanks so much you guys. This is really…" He looked like he was at a loss for words.

"Your welcome," Said Johnny.

"We're glad you like it," I said, "You should thank Jordan too. Without him we couldn't have done this…. Oh yeah, And if anyone asks, we're your cousins. Now go enjoy it."

He smiled at us again and went to play Wii.

* * *

><p>Around ten o'clock Johnny fell asleep.<p>

The whole time we both played video games sitting in the white circle chair, because 1: We were small enough t fit, 2: We didn't want it stained, 3: It was the only place left to sit, and 4: We couldn't really socialize with seniors (Tony was doing just fine though).

I think he was getting a little board with Kirby, I sure was with Pokémon Pinball. I switched it with Diamond three hours ago. I shook him until he was half awake and dragged him upstairs to the couch.

But someone was on the couch.

Johnny was completely alert in an instant. We stared at her, her cat in her lap, wondering if we could keep her from completely ruining our lives.

"Nice party you have going on down there." She wasn't smirking though. Her face was impassive.

"Yeah…" I tried to think quickly, "Would you like to join us?"

"No."

Johnny and I looked at each other and we both fell to out knees in front of Brianna.

Johnny was saying a never ending string of 'pleases', "_Please don't tell Mom and Dad, please please please please please please please…"_

_At the same time I was trying to make a deal with her, "I'll do anything you want, anything. I'll do all your chores, I'll pay you, I'll-"_

"_Stop… I'll tell you what I want in the morning." With that she hurried upstairs to her room._

"_W- why," Johnny was visibly trembling, "Why isn't she at her sleepover?"_

"_I don't know…" I was probably shaking too but I tried to smile, "But look at the bright side: She's not going to tell Mom and Dad."_

"_Are you s-sure?"_

"_Pretty sure. Not if she can get whatever she wants from us." This just wasn't fair, we were only trying to do something nice for our friend. Well, I wasn't about to let Johnny be miserable, "So cheer up, and let's go enjoy the rest of the party."_

_Most of the food was gone by now but we each grabbed a slice of pizza and sat down to play our games in the white chair._

_/\\\\\\_

_Around twelve, people started leaving and Johnny had fallen asleep again. By twelve thirty only Tony, Roy, and Jordan were left and once we got all of Jordan's electronics in his car, he left too. _

"_You two want to stay over?" I asked._

"_Sure," Said Tony._

_Roy said, "Yeah."_

_I got Tony to set up the air mattresses while I put the TV's back. I freaked out a bit when I got to Brianna's but she was asleep when I got to her room. They helped me get the rest of the stuff back in the attic and pick up the garbage. I vacuumed, fixed the bed, and all traces of the party were gone._

_Everyone crashed the moment we got in bed, even me, but the last thought that went through my head was: What will Brianna want?_


	6. Chapter 6

"Skye…Wake up Skye," I leaned on my elbow groggily and looked at Roy standing next to my bed, "Good morning, it's 8:00 o'clock."

"Good morning. But why'd you wake me up?"

"You were… Um… having a bad dream."

"Was I?" I couldn't remember anything.

"Pretty sure… You were thrashing… and mumbling."

"Weird… well thanks." He sat down in a lime green chair and started playing Diamond. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, s'okay though."

I looked around. Johnny was still asleep in the white chair but Tony was no where to be seen, "Where's Tony?"

"I don't know. Doesn't he always stay until someone's awake before he leaves? That is, when he gets up first…"

"Yeah," I agreed, "I'll go see if his shoes are still here." I went upstairs and they weren't by the front door, so I went to the garage. Sometimes we left them on the steps leading up to the door. They weren't there but the garage door was open and guess what I saw.

"Roy! Roy!" I exclaimed when I'd ran back downstairs.

"What! What!" He playfully imitated.

"It snowed!" And I jumped around.

He moved aside a curtain and found there was two feet piled up against the window, "That's cool."

"We need to have a snowball fight!"

"Sounds fun," He nodded and my brother with his limbs splayed out at odd angles, "But let's wait until Johnny's awake first."

"He's on my team," I got the small game console off of the shelf attached to my bed, "I should probably work on Pokémon pinball some more."

"You'll have to be determined with that one."

"Mmhmm." I walked over to the closet and dug through the pile of clothes to the left corner where I keep the case. "Roy!" I shouted extremely panicked.

"What wrong?"

"It's not here!" Johnny woke up, "The testing case isn't in the closet!"

"What?"

"NO, NO, NO!" I was throwing everything out of the closet: books, clothes, pillows, the drawer that held our socks. When it was empty I looked over, under, and around everything in the room. When I had successfully flung the two mattresses against the wall Roy tried to help me think calmly, though he looked a little panicked too.

"When's the last time you saw it?"

"Yesterday around 7, when I switched to diamond."

"That means anyone from last night could have taken it." Said Johnny in distress.

"No, we were sitting right across from it. I would have noticed." I hope.

"What about when we went upstairs?"

"I remember when you guys left, I don't think anyone went in the closet."

"Then what-!" I stopped mid-sentence, "Brianna." They looked at me, slightly fearful because I was now irrational and malevolent, "She probably found out a long time ago. She must have decided to take it last night while we were sleeping thinking we couldn't do anything about it because she found out about the party." I started toward the stairs.

"Why didn't you tell me th-?"

"And if she thinks that, she has no idea what order my priorities are in." Then I slammed the basement door. I walked through the foyer, up the next flight of stairs and to her room.

When I banged open her door the stupid white ball of fluff that was her cat hissed and jumped off the bed. She was sitting on the bench beneath her window looking out at the forest. She turned around, startled. I walked up to her, yanked her off so she was kneeling in front of me. I grabbed her by the shirt and held her halfway up so that her face was a few inches away and down from mine. My voice was a low growl.

"Where is it."

"It wasn't me!" She said terrified.

She did know about it. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH IT?"

"T-Tony took it."

"Are you freaking kidding me? WHAT DID-"

"Look at the footprints!" She pointed out the window.

I glanced at the snow below and there were footprints in the snow, starting on the deck and going on to the forest. "What about them?"

"They're Tony's."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah." She said immediately, "I woke up around seven thirty to watch my show and about ten minutes later I heard the back door slam. I looked out the window and Tony was walking toward the forest with your case and a shovel."

"How do you know about the case?" I asked aggressively but I wasn't yelling anymore.

"I found out at the pizza hut. I went there after, and there were policemen. The said someone tried to steal a testing case from some girl. I just knew it was you, so I followed you for a while. And finally at Colonial that one time. I heard everything you said. I was about to tell you that I knew but I decided not to at the last second. I covered up by asking what it was that you didn't want to fail at."

"You knew this whole time?" She nodded. "Who did you tell?"

"No one."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I wasn't going to either."

As much as I wanted to believe she was lying, it sounded like she was telling the truth and it did explain why Tony wasn't there when we woke up. So I gave her the benefit of the doubt. "Let's go check those footprints then."

"Okay."

Roy and Johnny were waiting at the bottom of the steps. I said on our way to the back door, "She says she saw Tony take it," and I guess they didn't know what to say, because they remained silent. I slid on my boots and took a step outside and looked down at the footprints in the snow. It had been snowing since they were made so it was slightly filled but I could tell they were way too big to belong to Brianna.

"She could have just worn dad's boots." Offered Johnny.

"Gross. I wouldn't do that."

They were waiting for me to say something but it took me a minute I was so distressed. And that was because: "The shoes that made these tracks were wheelies." I turned away from their shocked faces and walked back through the house to the garage, grabbed some shovels and went back to where they were waiting. "Brianna said he had my case and a shovel with him. We might need these. You'll help me find it, right?"

"Yes," Said Johnny quietly. He was still in stunned.

"I didn't think you'd need to ask," Said Roy and I managed a smile.

"I want to help," We all looked at Brianna. She didn't say anything else.

"There aren't anymore shovels."

"I'm still coming," She said stubbornly. We weren't trying to stop her, we were just confused.

"Okay," I went down the steps and across the lawn, the others behind me. Halfway to the forest a jagged path started next to the footprints, where he dragged the shovel. When we eventually entered the forest I felt immediately better. There were too many happy memories here for me to be distraught.

We walked on for twenty minutes (It's a big forest) before the tracks became so filled with snow we couldn't see them anymore. And the falling snow was becoming so thick I could no longer see the logs in the snow and was constantly tripping over them. Stupid sprinkles.

I had tripped halfway over another one when Roy caught me by the back of my jacket. "Thanks…. Maybe you guys should go back. It's getting cold and I doubt we'll find anything; he's probably out of the forest by now."

"We're staying with you," said Johnny, "And we'll find the case, even if he is out of the forest." The other two nodded. Brianna was still confusing me to no end.

We managed to walk for another 5 minute before I tripped over another log. I moaned. The happiness caused by being back in the forest was starting to wear off.

"Skye, look!"

I turned around in the snow and found out that it wasn't another log I'd tripped over but a snowy mound of dirt.

"Yes! We've found it! Help me dig."

I had just stood up and was going to start when Tony came out of nowhere and stood on the mound.

"Hey what are you guys doing?"

We all stared at him in disbelief until Johnny said "We're getting Skye's case back."

"Why? What happened to it?"

"You took it!" sad Roy angrily. Which scared Tony quite a bit. Roy'd never been angry at one of us before.

"What! No! It was probably Brianna. Why else would she have come with you but to keep her name clear?"

"You dirty little liar!" I was shouting and pretty sure I was crying too. Tony, for as long as I can remember, was the only person Johnny and I had that seemed to care about us, "Why would you do this?"

He realized he wasn't fooling anyone, "I was behind you in the line," his voice was hushed and indignant, "I would have taken the test when you had. I WOULD HAVE WON!" He shouted. We were stunned. He went on, "That thing wasn't a test, it was a machine designed to beep at random! Nothing could be that advanced. Not even in the Pokémon Region!"

"You're totally deluded," Said Roy in an almost awed voice.

"Even if that were true, It's your own fault Skye went last. You wanted to go second," Said Johnny.

Now in a frenzy, he bellowed and kicked the mound. And he ran off in the direction of main street.

I turned to Johnny and saw that he was crying too. I gave him a hug, "I guess th-this means he's not going to be our f-friend anymore." he sniffled.

"Not if you want him too."

"N-no, Not if he's g- going to be like that. And I don't think he want's t-to be anyway," I let go of him and reached for a shovel, "What about you Roy?"

"I wouldn't want to be friends with anyone who would make a jerk move like that." I smiled glad they were both with me, "Let's start digging."

Tony managed to make a pretty deep hole, so it took us a while. Roy eventually did it on his own though, we were just getting in the way.

"Got it," He said and he reached in and pulled out the white case with the Pokémon pictures and the funny little squares around the bottom. He handed it to me and I hugged it, covered in dirt, to my chest.

"I think I need to find another hiding place for this."

"I don't think he'll try to take it again though."

"Still."

We started walking back to the house. The snow had let up a bit, so after about 20 minutes we were almost home. When we got there Brianna said, "I won't tell Mom and Dad, about the party you threw… And I was going to tell you that Tony took the case, I was just waiting for him to come out of the forest."

I feel like my confusion had reached the maximum, "Why? Don't you want anything from us? You've always-"

"No, I don't." And with that she ran back upstairs to her room.

* * *

><p>Later that night after Roy had gone home and Johnny and I were laying on our bunks playing our games (I was only halfway through Pokémon pinball), he asked me something I hadn't considered.<p>

"Do you think Roy will still want to hang out with us?"

"Why would you wonder about something like that?"

"Well, I mean, what if he was only hanging out with us because of Tony. After all we're so much younger than him and Tony's only two years younger," True, he would be turning sixteen in a month.

"You know Roy's not like that, he doesn't mind how old we are. Otherwise he wouldn't be hanging out with us in the first place. And you were the reason he became friends with us at all, not Tony."

"Thanks." Now I was worried about it though. People aren't normally friends with people that are different ages than them, unless they're related or there parents are friends or something. I decided I would ask to Roy about it later.

"I am going to miss Tony."

"Me too. But he's a jerk! Maybe if he comes to his senses."

"I don't think he will."

We mostly played in silence for the next hour or so and then Johnny asked me another question, "Skye, if you made it to the Pokémon Region… Would I still get to see you?"

I sighed. I had been avoiding this, because he probably wouldn't need to know anyway, "In the _Other Information_ section it says if I win I can only visit non-Pokemon countries for a total of one month of the year. And that I'd only be able to call you at Pokémon Centers. But I can mail you stuff from anywhere you would normally mail stuff from."

"Oh… What else does it say in the other information section?"

"Well, it gives a number to call if I have any questions, but I should to read the whole book before I do that. It says when the big final test is, March first, and where it is, in New York, and that when I go, I need to bring the case full of completed games and the console. It also says that three days after everyone takes it, it will be announced who the winners are. And two weeks after the testing day the winners to go to a port in New York and board a ferry that will take them to the Region. It said that only the winners will be told where the port is so no one tries to stop them or try to get on the boat themselves. I can't wait to see New York! You'll come with me right?… Right?" I looked over the edge of my bunk to see my sleeping brother with his game still in his hand. I laughed and got down to save for him.

I went back up and tried to fall asleep but gave up after an hour, and played pinball for three more, which eventually did put me to sleep.

* * *

><p>When I woke up it was ten and Johnny was gone. A note on his bed said he was going to another video game club meeting and then to another member's house afterwards. The fact that his sister has a testing case and he can't tell the club must be killing him.<p>

I got up and stood on the white chair to move aside the window curtain, remembering that we were supposed to have had a snowball fight yesterday. We could do that later.

I checked the mini fridge, not feeling like going upstairs. All we had were those fake strips of bologna. Oh well. I rolled some up and ate them as I walked to the closet to check my case in its new hiding place: The sock drawer. It was safe and sound behind a row of argyles.

I looked out the window again. I really wanted to play in the snow but I didn't want to do it alone, so I sat down in the white chair, which was becoming my favorite, and tried to finish pinball. All I had left to do was capture Jirachi.

I played for a minute then got sidetracked and decided to call Roy to see if he would come over today.

It rang a few times, then, "Hello?"

"Hey, Roy, it's Skye. Do you want to make a snow fort or something today?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have an essay due."

I thought for a minute and decided it would be best to just ask him if he was uncomfortable with the age difference, "Roy, I know you're a lot older than us, so it's probably always been a little weird to be friends with us. And now that Tony isn't going to be around anymore… Do you still want to be?"

He was silent for a minute. "Of course I do! You two are like my brother and sister. Yeah, I've got plenty of friends my age, but you two are my family. Maybe it's because I don't have a lot to start with, but you guys are important to me."

I smiled, "We think of you the same way," Which I now realized was true. We may already have older brothers but we hardly knew them. Same with our parents; Roy was our role model.

"I'm glad," He said, "Well, I'll see you later."

"Good-bye."

Happy now, that I knew where Roy stood, I sat down to finish Pinball.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later I finally got to the point where all I had to do was hit Jirachi with the Poké Ball one more time-.<p>

"Hey Skye." Brianna was on the stairs.

"Quiet!"

Ten seconds left… "Finally! No more Pokémon Pinball" I said out loud and sighed with relief, "So what do you want?"

"… Would you make an igloo with me?"

I thought my confusion had peaked yesterday. Then I thought of something I hadn't before. Maybe… She wanted to be friends with me… But can things just change like that?… It couldn't hurt… May as well try, "Okay."

So we went out to the front yard and made a giant igloo by cutting squares out of the snow plow pile with a shovel. It took three hours but the result was impressive.

"Want to get some hot chocolate and drink it inside it?" I suggested.

"Good idea." She said. So far it had been awkward and we hadn't talked much but we had been getting along well.

We went inside and to get our hot chocolate. But when we came back out half the igloo was destroyed.

"No!" Brianna yelled and ran up to it.

I walked up next to her, holding both the mugs, she looked very upset, "What happened?"

"Look at the footprints." And so I looked. The only footprints that should have been there were the ones surrounding the destroyed igloo and the ones leading to the front door. But there were three sets leading to the next door neighbors' house. Caden, Jaden and Aidan lived there. Caden and Jaden were twins and Aidan was their older brother. They were all Brianna's age.

"Why would they do this?"

"In the past few week they've gotten everyone at school to hate me, because Snuffles bit their stupid dog's tail and now it's all bent. It's why I left the sleepover when you guys were having the party. They only invited me to make me miserable." She was sniveling now.

I felt sorry for her. Believe me she isn't the most pleasant or nicest person, so people can maybe justify being mean to her, but I'm pretty sure the people at the sleepover had been her friends for a while. So she knows how much it sucks to have your friends betray you which is probably why she was going to tell us about Tony before. And now, so do I.

* * *

><p>We had been sitting next to our empty mugs inside our reconstructed igloo for the better part of an hour. Not talking, not doing anything. Just sitting.<p>

Finally we heard it. An opening gate, crunching footsteps, and three sniggering boys. Brianna looked at me and smiled broadly.

We crouched, grabbed the handle of the umbrella, and threw it off along with the layer of snow on top of it serving as the fake roof. The idiot boys stared at us, completely dumbfounded.

Not missing a beat, we crouched down, grabbed an armload and started pelting them with icy snowballs. They were all critical hits and they ran away screaming.

We sat on the ground and laughed. There had been a lot of preparation for that moment, but it was well worth it.

* * *

><p>When Johnny got home he found Brianna and I in the family room watching <em>13 Going on 30. He stared at us for a good 3 minutes before going downstairs.<em>

_I was the one who suggested we watch it. Though I wasn't one for chick-flicks, I doubt she was one for making igloos._

"_So Brianna… You aren't going to tell anyone about the testing case?"_

"_I can't see any reason why."_

"_Good."_

"_Skye," She said, "What does it mean exactly… That you have a testing case?"_

"_It means that I have a 1 in 928 chance to live in the Pokémon Region," I said, "That is, if I finish the testing case… And I'll have to pass this big test organized in NewYork."_

"_Cool. But… I'm not so sure Dad would be to thrilled about it if you win."_

_Oh geeze, what an idiot I am. I had not given one thought about if my parents would let me leave. And no doubt I would need their permission. Yes, the Pokémon Region gave their youths much more freedom and responsibility, but parents could still keep them from going on journeys._

"_No, I don't think he will."_


	7. Chapter 7

"Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears." It's the first Sunday in February and at four, Johnny said he would chant nonstop until five o'clock came. It was now five to five and he held true to his promise. I'm not much for sports but our family's team is the Bears and this year they're playing the Patriots in the Super Bowl. So I was pumped, hoping I would be able to rub a win in Roy's face, a Patriots fan.

Mom and Dad always go to their friend Bay's Super Bowl party in Chicago, so our brothers always hold a party for their friends. It was a tradition that they didn't tell our parents, because they've been doing it since they were 15 and have never been caught.

Our house wasn't the best place to hold a sports party (not upstairs anyway). Our family room was tiny, our TV was miniscule and the only couch was meant to hold two people. The one thing we had a good amount of was junk food. Right now five of our brothers' 'adult' friends were squeezed onto the couch watching pre-game stuff. The only reason anyone came was because they had been coming since the beginning.

Now a minute before the game everyone started chanting with Johnny (except Roy). He got up from the beanbag we were sitting in and pretended to conduct.

"Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears." When it finally got to the kick off Johnny quickly motioned upwards with his hands to indicate that they should finish with one loud "BEARS!" but they didn't quite get the message and instead everyone teetered off at different intervals.

"They could have at least pretended they were following me."

"The fact that they started at all was amazing."

"Meh," Was his response.

"Can I please go start it now?"

"No," Said Roy on the floor next to us, "You really need to take a break," I looked at him, "At least celebrate first."

Aside from the Super Bowl Roy, Johnny, and I were celebrating for other reasons: The final test was in _one _month and I was _finally _done with the games. I'd finished the last one (Comet) yesterday. So, every other minute Roy and Johnny (at least until he started the chanting) would sneak up behind me with party blowers. I desperately wanted to go to the basement and start reading the information book but they wouldn't have it. They said I had to celebrate first. And so we were.

"Skye," Said Johnny, "We're out of popcorn," He stared deep into my soul.

"I'm not getting up again."

"Pleeease?"

"Fine." I took the bowl and went to the kitchen where sat the garbage bag of popcorn. Brianna was there, sitting on the counter, noming on the fruit salad.

"Enjoying the festivities?" I asked her as I plunged in the bowl.

"It's okay," She didn't much like football, but she loved parties.

"That's good." As I left the kitchen, I considered making a dash for the basement, but Roy was right. I'd really done nothing but videogames for a long time.

I went and sat on top of Johnny until he pushed me onto Roy who I fell off of and sat next to. Roy was sulking because the Patriots were already nine points behind.

But two hours later, when the half time show ended, Johnny was dejected and Roy was in high spirits but I couldn't care less, because I couldn't think of anything except the information book.

"Please can I go read the information book, now? You don't know how hard it's been keeping myself from it." I'd really wanted to keep the games and the book separate, "What if I haven't left enough time to read it and prepare for the test."

"Okay, but only for a little while, come back after a few pages."

"Yes!" I jumped up and ran downstairs. I had stupidly left the case on the bed in the excitement, but nothing had happened to it. I opened it up and touched the little red book.

With it in my hands, I flopped on the bed and started to read. The basic information section was interesting, but the wording made my eyes wander. I looked over to the bedside table and saw the house phone had 3 missed calls. They were from dad's cell.

I went upstairs to tell Tyler.

"Hmm, that's weird… Mark, does my phone have any messages?"

Mark looked in the folds of the couch and found Ty's phone. "Uhhh, yeah, a text from Dad."

"What's it say?"

Marks answer to this was a long string of profanity and "Their coming home. Apparently Bay didn't actually plan a party this year, they just assumed he did. Oh God, they'll be home any minute."

"Hey, just chill out," Said someone drunk and fused to the couch, "You're adults, you can have a party."

"No we can't." Said Tyler panicked, "They still control us. They can kick us out."

"Come on," Said someone even more drunk than the new couch cushion, "They'll let you have a party." Tyler, Mark and I shared a look. "Wow. I thought the… secrecy was just for… tradition."

"Well, not really."

"Am I glad this isn't my problem." I said as I made my way to go get Roy and Johnny and go to the basement.

"Hey Skylark. If you don't help us fix this, it will be your problem."

I looked at them disbelieving and wishing I hadn't even told them of our parent's calls, "Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Um, start cleaning up. Mark, let's get everyone to lea-." And that's when the garage door opened.

Mark and Tyler panicked and started screaming at everyone to leave through the back door, which was pretty stupid considering Mom and Dad would have seen all their cars parked in the driveway anyway, that and they could hear their shouts from the garage. Roy and John, now aware of the situation, started toward the stairs. Roy had yet to meet my parents and they have yet to hear of his existence. I would rather put that off for as long as possible.

Back in the basement, Johnny turned on the TV to watch the rest of the super bowl. They never came down here so we were safe. Before I went back to reading, I listened to the commotion upstairs. After a stampede, the back door finally banged shut the door from the garage opened and my parents immediately started screaming. No individual words were discernable and I couldn't hear anything from Tyler and Mark. Eventually it stopped and I went back to the basic information section.

* * *

><p>Maybe two hours later, and after Roy had left, the door to the basement opened and our brothers came down.<p>

They stood at the foot of the stairs and called us over.

Mark said, "We came to say good-bye."

"What?" We said then I continued, "They… Didn't actually kick you out did they?"

"They did," Answered Tyler, "Our stuff' s in the car."

We didn't move for a minute. Then they swiftly bent down and each gave us a hug. "We'll come and visit in a few weeks."

"Where are you going to live?" Asked Johnny.

"We'll be staying with some friends, then get an apartment. Well, bye." They started walking up the stairs.

Johnny and I didn't return the farewell until they were passing through the threshold, "Goodbye!"

We went and sat together in the white chair, needing to have someone close.

"I- I didn't think Mom and Dad would actually kick them out for something like that." Said Johnny.

"Me either." I was very worried. We never saw Mom and Dad, but we thought they cared about us at least a little. But now… Was that the extent of their caring? If they had caught us throwing Roy's party, would they have kicked us out? Sent us to live with grandpa?

Staring blankly at the TV, hardly noticing the Patriots winning kick, we listened to the garage door close.

* * *

><p>"How does electricity flow through a Pokémon without killing it?"<p>

"The Pokémon Vitamin T, Pullity."

"What kind of government do they have," Asked Roy, "And who is the current leader of Tenkimaguro, Chinto, and Onett?"

"I think it's a constitutional monarchy in Tenkimaguro and Onett… And the King Damien is currently the leader in Tenkimaguro, his daughter Penelope is next in line. In Onett, Chelsey and her husband Haines. It's a republic in Chinto."

"What is their form of currency?"

"Pokés . It's all paper and the bills come in 50,000 10,000 5,000 1,000 100 and 50. It's the same in every country."

"What are two environmental differences?"

"There are no bugs, aside from bug Pokémon, and the water is un-polluted."

"Last question. How does the Pokéball transportation system work?"

"The transport machines in Pokémon Centers are powered by psychic Pokémon. And when a seventh Pokémon is caught it is transported to the PC storage system using the same psychic power."

"Okay," Said Roy, "You officially know the book forward and backward. Do you feel ready?"

"Sure do!" I said with a smile. I had never actually felt this prepared for any test.

"Do you want to go over Pokémon evolutions and numbers again?" Asked Johnny. Johnny had been the one helping me study that. He actually had all of that memorized before the contest started he played so often. Roy helped me with everything else.

"No, thanks though. Maybe later."

"Can I look at the map again?" Asked Johnny. I tossed it to him.

"Roy, you're sure you can drive me to the final testing station?" March 1st was in 3 days. "The drive to New York is about fifteen hours long."

"I already answered that."

"I can still come too?" Asked Johnny.

We both replied with a loud, "Yes!" Because he had, in fact, asked us this more than I asked Roy if he was sure he could drive us.

"I've never been to New York." Said Johnny

"None of us have," Roy continued, "Skye, are you sure your parents won't notice your gone?"

"I'm sure. They'll be in Europe for business." They are still allowed to both be gone, because they pay Mark and Tyler to sleep here every other night.

"Hey Skye? What's this," Johnny held the book up to my face. Behind the Unova Map there was a small pullout. It was about half a page long which was probably why I hadn't seen it before.

"I don't know." I took it from him and read for a few seconds before yelling, "Holy crap! It's a permission form!"

"Huh?"

"A permission form. Mom and Dad need to sign to say that they're okay with me taking this test."

"Come on," Said Johnny, "They won't care if you go."

"Yes, but they will care that I haven't told them about this at all."

"Just try and make it seem like you didn't think it was a big deal," Offered Roy.

"I'll try, but they're not idiots. They'll have seen the news and know that for anyone who passed the preliminaries, it's probably one of the biggest deals of their lives."

We didn't say anything for a while. Johnny went back to his Kirby default, me to the biology section, and Roy to Platinum.

"They'll be home tomorrow for a while around lunchtime. I'll ask them then."

* * *

><p>Standing in the other room, next to the entryway to the kitchen, I peaked around at my parents sitting at the table. My dad was reading the newspaper and my mom was filling out papers. I clutched the form in my right hand I looked at Roy and Johnny standing next to me, ready to run to the door leading to the basement a few feet away. I was going in alone, but still wanted them to hear.<p>

Johnny mouthed, "Good luck," and in I went.

"Mom, Dad," The words felt dry in my throat.

"Yes?" Said my father in his low, drawling voice, his mustache bobbed.

"Do you remember that thing that was on the news, in October."

"You'll have to be more specific, dear," said my mother not looking up from her papers and in the same drawling accent.

"The contest to go to the Pokémon Region."

"What about it?"

"I kind of won one of the testing cases and the final testing is in a few days, would you sign this so I can go?" I said this faster than I intended and they were both looking at me.

"No." Said my father.

I stared at them blankly, "Why not?"

"You lied to us."

"But- But- DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I'VE PREPARED FOR THIS?" I exploded, "You can't just-"

"This is not up for discussion. Even if you're telling the truth, not telling us about it before is why you cannot go. Go to your room." Said my dad callously.

"I'm not lying! I'll prove it. Let me-"

"We don't care, go to your room!" He shouted.

I turned and ran. I almost fell down the stairs. I vaulted into bed and hid under the covers, a childish thing to do but I didn't want Johnny or Roy to see my tears.

I heard their footsteps up to the bed but they didn't say anything. Eventually they just sat down and played their games.

I didn't know what to do. I had to find a way to take the test. I couldn't forge a signature, I had horrible handwriting, and anyway they had machinery to check for that. I couldn't trick them into signing it, they're business people, they never sign something without reading what it is. And I wouldn't have time to trick them, they were leaving in an hour. Could I convince them to let me take the test without the signature? No, probably not.

"Wait!" I said coming out from under the covers.

"What?" Asked Johnny.

"Mark and Tyler! They're more our parents then they are. They have to be allowed to sign."

"Skye, they're not legally our guardians."

"But they have to have some kind of claim over us! I'm going to go look through Mom's law books."

"She's desperate," I heard Roy mumble as I raced upstairs.

* * *

><p>I came back again 20 minutes later, again dejected, "They can't really sign it."<p>

"What are you going to do?" Asked Johnny.

"Well. I don't have a choice, I'm going to ask them to sign it anyway. I'll just say that my parents were out of town and couldn't sign it, but they said they were okay with it and that Mark or Tyler should sign it."

"You don't really think that will work?" Asked Roy.

"I'm hoping they won't care too much, the people working for Region that is. They would only care if I won. And if I do… Well I don't think Mom and Dad would really stop me then."

"Your on shaky ground there, Skye."

"I'm still going to try."

"Okay then."


	8. Chapter 8

On the day of the testing, Roy had to come over at three in the morning so we could be there by six at night. In the car Johnny immediately fell back asleep on my shoulder. Roy convinced me to go back to sleep too, when he said I would need my energy for the test. I woke up four hours later around seven when the car was swerving.

An involuntary noise escaped my throat, "Ack. Roy what are you doing?"

"Me? What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

"You were screaming your head off! Scared the heck out of me."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"S'okay, just please don't do that again. What were you dreaming of?"

I looked down at Johnny, still asleep, and tried to remember. It was pretty fuzzy. Something about the information book, "Can't remember." I picked up the case to make sure everything was still inside it. Yup, all there. Mark's signature tucked back between the maps.

"Have a sandwich," He said and threw one back at me from the cooler in the front.

"Thanks," I looked out at the sunrise, "Sure is beautiful."

Johnny woke up a half hour later and started quizzing me on Pokémon numbers again. When we were done with that he worked on his case, which he was only a fourth of the way done with, and I went back to studying on my own.

And finally, around 5 o'clock, we reached New York City.

Roy alerted it to us, "Guys. Look at the skyline."

Johnny looked up from his game, something he hadn't done in a while, "Cool!"

We spent the rest of the hour oohing and aahing at the giant buildings and diverse people. It's not like we hadn't seen a city before though; We went to Chicago a few years ago.

But when that hour ended we had arrived at the testing station. It was a gigantic square building made of glass and white metal. At the front there were stairs that let up to five sets of double doors. Each had someone official standing next to it and a line of people in front of it. Roy and Johnny walked me to the one in the middle.

"Afterward do you guys want to go see… New York stuff?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." Said Roy.

Some man walking up and down the lines, trying to keep them straight started yelling, "Only testers in these lines, everyone else, leave!"

We focused our attention back to each other, "Why don't you two go explore while I'm testing?"

"I was thinking I'd nap while your testing."

"That's a good idea," Said Johnny, "You must be tired, getting up so early."

He gave one short laugh and messed up Johnny's hair, "We'll go wait in the car. Good luck Skye!"

"Good luck," Johnny echoed.

"Bye!" And they ran off. I waited a minute, then started talking to an older blond girl in front of me, "Hi, what's your name?"

"I'm Lori. And you?"

"Skye."

"Hi Skye! Where are you from?"

"I live in a suburb near Chicago."

"Wow, that's far. So people really have come from across the country. I live in Manhattan. Do you think you're ready?"

"I'd better be. I've done nothing but get ready. Every game is 100% finished."

"That's good. The kid in front of me said he only finished three games. He thinks they're not going to check."

"Are you kidding me? Why wouldn't they?"

"I don't know."

As we passed through the doors, the man next to them checked to make sure that we had our cases and, to my dismay, that our permission forms were "out and ready". Inside the back wall was about 20 feet from the doors, but it very long from left to right and on either side there were huge elevator doors that periodically opened and filled with kids. Lining the back wall was a long counter with five doors and five people behind it. They all took a kid's case, did something with it behind the desk, handed it back then directed them to either one of the doors or an elevator. The kid in front of Lori was starting to bounce on his toes.

"Lori, do you think all the workers here are from the Region?"

"No idea," The man that was keeping the lines straight, walked passed, "Excuse me?"

"Yes miss?"

"Is everyone here from the Region."

"Yup, everyone except the testers."

"Thank you," She looked at me.

"Cool!" I squealed.

The boy in front of Lori had gotten to the front and by now he looked really pale. We both watched.

"Can I see your case?" The lady behind the desk asked. He lifted it up then lowered it back down, "No, may I have it for a moment?"

"Do you really need it?"

The lady looked sadly at the boy, realizing what was going on, "Yes," He handed it over and she plugged it into something. She sighed. "I'm sorry, you haven't finished all of the games. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"No, NO! Please!"

"Little boy, I'll have to call security." Unfortunately she did have to, because the boy decided to try to jump over to the counter. The man from earlier came around and practically had to drag him from the building.

Lori walked up and handed the lady her case and then the permission form, "Everything seems to be in order here, go through this door to be tested."

"Okay," She took back her case, "Thank you. Goodbye Skye"

"Goodbye," The door closed, "Lori."

"Your case please," I handed it over, "Okay you've followed all the rules. Your permission form please," I handed it over, "Hmmm, this signature doesn't seem to belong to either of your parents," She said looking at her computer.

My heart stopped. I imagined being dragged out by security like that other kid, not that I would make any trouble though, "That's my brother's. He's an adult. My par-"

"Oh, well, that's okay then. In the Region anyway. Just give me a moment to check that what you say is true. What's his name?"

"Mark Maggis."

"Well according to an Illinois database, Mark Maggis is indeed twenty-seven and has a younger sister Skye," I could tell she was bending the rules a bit. She handed me back my things, "Please go to the elevator on your right and proceed to floor five."

"Thank you!" I practically ran to the elevator, my heart rate going back down and elation blooming in my brain.

It was a normal sized elevator but it had 14 kids crammed inside it after I got in. Squished up against the wall, I couldn't see what the floors looked like, but one kid got off on the second and three more on the fourth. The doors pulled open again and I wriggled forward.

The room filled the entire floor of the building, except the space the elevator took up and there seemed to be two or three hundred kids, each sitting at a desk, taking a test.

There was another worker sitting at the front of the room, behind a teacher's desk reading a book. I said "I'm Skye," with question in my voice. He checked something off a list, presumably my name, as he pointed at several giant stacks of papers on the corner of his desk. I picked a paper up to find it was stapled to about 20 more. I took a mechanical pencil from the giant jar on the next to them and went and sat in one of the desks in the middle of the room, to take the test.

* * *

><p>The new arrivals kept coming, rotating from one elevator to the other. The room eventually filled up with the exact same number of people as the desks. At eight thirty they started leaving. By nine, I was finished. I walked up and dropped the test off on the side of the desk opposite where I picked it up.<p>

As I waited for the elevator I looked around and realized there were only a few people left taking the test and there were only two others in the elevator with me as I went back down. One was sobbing on the shoulder of the other who was, I'm guessing, a complete stranger and was trying to comfort him, though awkwardly.

The mood in the lobby was gloomy. There were a lot of kids sitting against the walls, waiting for rides. One boy was gibbering into his phone, "I totally messed everything up- I didn't study enough."

I walked to where Roy parked the car to find him snoozing in the back, splayed across the row of seats. Johnny was in the front, pretending to drive, sound effects and all. I knocked on the window and he jumped. His face broke into a grin as he saw mine. He unlocked the doors and I sat in the passengers seat.

"How do you think you did?"

"I think all that studying paid off."

"You were in there a long time." He looked at his DS, "It's nine o'clock! We don't have time to see New York."

"Hmmm," I took out my phone and called Brianna, "Hey Brianna."

"Yeah?"

"Have Mom and Dad come home?"

"No, Mark's here. Why?"

"Well, I was just checking. We haven't left New York and I don't think Roy would be able to stay awake at the wheel tonight anyway, so we're going to stay somewhere here tonight."

"Oh, yeah. You had to take that test thing."

"Right. And do me a favor. If Mom and Dad _do _happen to come home, tell them we're at a sleepover."

"Sure."

"Thanks a lot. Bye."

"Bye," I hung up.

"Yes!" Exclaimed Johnny.

"Don't get excited. I can only afford a cheap motel… Hey Roy," I nudged him, "Wake up."

He sat up groggily, "Hey," He blinked, "How'd it go?"

"It went well," I said smiling, "All the answers came easily."

"Great!" He high-fived me, "Where do you two want to go?"

Johnny, quick to answer, said, "Lets go somewhere for ice cream!"

"Okay." He started looking for an ice cream store in some New York pamphlet he found in a gas station.

"Roy, we don't really have time to drive home tonight and I'm guessing you still want more sleep anyway, so how about we stay in a Super 8 or something?"

"You sure your parents won't notice?"

"They won't be home for a while."

"Okay, sounds good to me." He looked up from the page, "All the ice cream places are pretty far away. Except one…"

* * *

><p>"We could have just stayed home," I said trying to act irritable but not succeeding, as I was submersed in our shared kitchen sink. Johnny and I had only ever gotten halfway done on our own, but with Roy-.<p>

"Come on, I wanted to see if it tasted any different here. Roy, stop eating it all."

"Okay, I'm done anyway. Do you guys know that the only Pokémon Center in the US is in New York? Of course it's just a store though."

"Really?" Said Johnny surprised, "How come we don't know about it?"

"I dunno, it was in the pamphlet."

"Can we go?"

"It's probably closed now. We'll go in the morning before we leave. Check please."

* * *

><p>Later that night, with Johnny sleeping next to me in bed and Roy snoring it up on the couch a few feet away, I was awake and staring at the map of the whole Region. Surely, with all those people at the station who thought they did badly I could have done a good enough job to win. And with that thought I drifted off.<p>

* * *

><p>"WHEEEEE!" Johnny ran toward the doors of the Pokémon Center with me right behind him.<p>

They had everything in there! They had piles of different card packs, stacked up liked canned goods at a supermarket, there were clothes, plush toys, books, movies, food! And all the games. There was a separate room for playing the card games and a room with TV's set up to play games on.

As I was looking though the clothing section Roy came up behind me, "Look, I found some Pokémon brand Pocky."

I turned around, "What's Pocky?"

"I think it's a popular candy in Japan. I'm going to go buy it. Are you looking for something?"

"Yeah, actually, I was looking for those cool fingerless gloves they always wear in the shows and games." Johnny ran past still, yelling, "Wheee!" Roy grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and I said, "Calm down, you're going to break something."

"Igunnagetallthecardsandtheni'-"

Roy let him go, "He'll slow down on his own eventually. What was it you were looking for again, fingerless gloves?"

"Like the ones Ash wears on the TV show."

He bent down and read one of the shelf stickers, "I think this is where they'd be but there aren't anymore."

"Aww… I think I'll get some of that Pocky too."

At the front desk was a pink haired lady, behind me, Roy asked, "Are you-?"

"No I'm not really from the Region. Geeze, I've been asked that non stop for the past three days. I guess it's what I deserve trying to play the part. I'm hoping when all the testers leave, it will stop."

"Was a primary testing station held here?" I asked.

"Yes, on the second and third floor, where we do the birthdays."

Roy and I went and sat down at one of the card game tables to eat our Pocky and watch people play. Johnny with one of his new decks started playing this one little girl even younger than him, he lost. Then he started bragging to her about how much of his case he had beaten.

"So what, my brother's got a _testing _case _and _he's beaten the whole thing. He took the test yesterday."

"Well, so did my sister." And then they went off on a foray of competitions."

"Ahh, young love," Roy joked.

I cracked up, "Of course-," I stopped abruptly and turned in my seat to look over my shoulder.

"Something wrong?" Asked Roy and he turned to look too.

"Nothing," I went back to my Pocky, "It felt like someone was looking at me is all."

* * *

><p>Three days later, the three of us and Brianna were watching the news on the couch in the living room. In order to fit Johnny Had to sit in Roy's lap. Brianna happened to have her cat on her lap as well, and I had a life sized Delibird beanie baby I got from the Pokémon Center in mine. Roy had slept over the night we got back, to exhausted to drive anymore.<p>

"Back to you Jean,"

"Thank you Ted for that astonishing information on the Pocky recall. Up next how the escaped Flamingos from the Lincoln park zoo were captured and after that the winners of the Pokémon contest will be announced." A McRib commercial came on.

"Wow Skye!" Said Johnny hopping off of Roy, "I can't believe we're finally going to find out!"

"Neither can I." A few minutes later, "I really hate flamingos right now."

And finally the same nurse Joy we saw on the original announcement came on the screen. "Hi, I'm Nurse Natalie from the Pokémon Region. We'd like to thank everyone that participated in the contest, but we all know there can only be two winners," I squeezed a handful of Delibird's hair, accidentally grabbing part of Snuffles fretful tail. It hissed. "Drum roll please… And the winners are ten year old Allan Yankovitch and fifteen year old Lori McDonald!" Their pictures came on the screen. Allan was a tiny Asian boy and Lori really was the Lori who had been standing in front of me in line at the testing station. "The leaving date is March 15th You will get letters in the mail with more information."

Roy turned off the TV, "Skye…"

"I'm glad. I met Lori at the final testing station. She was really nice." I hurried out of the room and down to the basement and like before hid under the covers of my bed. This time they didn't come after me.


	9. Chapter 9

I didn't do anything for the rest of the day, just didn't have it in me. I actually thought I had a chance. And what does that get me? Disappointment. Two days later I knew I had to get on with my life but what was there to get on with? Either way at one o'clock I dragged myself out of bed to go see Johnny upstairs. When I got to the kitchen I saw a Portillo's chocolate cake on the table and Roy and Johnny sitting around it playing their games. They stood up when I walked in.

"Skye," Said Johnny, "I'm really glad you didn't win. We would have missed you too much. So we're celebrating for it!"

"It's probably really messed up and dangerous over there anyway with the evil gangs and legendaries and all that." Said Roy.

I was so touched, my eyes got all shiny, I'm sure. I ran over and hugged the both of them. I knew I would always wonder what I did wrong but I would be content.

Brianna vaulted downstairs, "Hi can I have some of that?" She asked as she ran to the garage door.

"Sure," Said Johnny, "What are you doing?" "I ordered a collar for snuffles online and its supposed to come in the mail today," Her voice faded as she ran down the driveway. The flat faced snuffles skidded across the tile as it ran after her.

Half an hour later, when snuffles was in her new collar and, though we had all eaten as much cake as we were going to, were still sitting around the table, Mark and Tyler had come over.

"GIMME SOME CAKE!" Said Tyler in a obnoxiously loud and funny voice. They both took some and went in the living room to watch TV.

"I'm sorry you didn't make it Skye," Said Brianna.

"S'okay. Lori really seemed like a good candidate though."

"Skylo get over here!" Called Mark.

"That's not even a word!" I called back.

"Just get over here," I went and the others followed.

The newscaster from yesterday was speaking, "Yesterday Allan Yankovitch informed Pokémon Region officials that he did not wish to go to the Region. Unfortunately this means that Lori McDonald is not allowed, because they were chosen as a pair."

"Oh poor Lori," I said quietly.

"This means," The lady continued, "That two new winners have been chosen and they will receive letters in the mail today. Their names will not be announced until after they have left, because it is believed that Lori had safety concerns."

"SKYE! SKYE!" Called Brianna from the other room, I hadn't known she left, "THERE"S A LETTER FOR YOU!"

No, no way. It's not possible. Out of virtually every kid in America. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the letter from her outstretched hand. I tore it open and

**Dear Skye Maggis, **

**Congratulations! You have been selected to live in the Pokémon Region. It is suggested you tell only trusted friends and family. Please be at the return address in New York on March 15 6:00PM ready to leave. You may bring possessions with you but keep in mind, you will have to carry it on your journey. If you brought something we cannot allow into the Region, we have the authority to send it back to your family. The rest of your possessions will be sent to your new home after you leave. **

**Just a reminder, you may only visit NPP Regions (Non Pokémon Populous Regions) for a total of thirty days in one year and you may only call anyone outside the Pokemon Region at a Pokémon Center or at your new home if a certain kind of phone is installed there. You must also put a *231 in front of the phone number as well as the area code. **

**Remember, you cannot be late.**

I waited for about five seconds before I started laughing, screaming, and jumping around like a madwoman, "I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON!"

Johnny picked up the letter and read it with Roy and Brianna over his shoulder.

"No way, Awesome!" Roy and Johnny jumped around with me, Brianna was smiling, and our older brothers were slack jawed, still sitting on the couch, "It is now a winning cake!" Yelled Johnny.

* * *

><p>Later the next day, our parents came home. It was very much similar to the last time I talked to them. They were sitting at the table, doing whatever they were doing and Johnny, Roy and I were standing by the doorway in the other room. I walked into the kitchen.<p>

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Hi sweetie."

I decided I'd just come out with it, "Remember when I asked you if I could go to take the test to go to the Pokémon Region and you said no? I went anyway. And I won. Out of every other girl in America I won," They looked at me like I was crazy, "I have proof," And I handed my mother the letter. They both read it together. Now my father looked at me as if I had purposely blown up the car.

"You went even after I told you no?" All of a sudden I felt faint.

"But Dad… I won."

"DOESN'T MATTER! You disobeyed my _direct order!"_

"But-"

"You are _not _going!"

All of a sudden, everything I had done to get to this point came rushing back, making me as strong and angry as my bristling father, "I studied for hours at a time, spent whole days on finishing the games. I went to New York! I actually won! And here you are telling me I can't go. What do you care? You don't care about me! You make up less than a hundredth of my life, and it'll continue to stay that way. WHAT COULD ANYONE POSSIBLY GAIN FROM ME STAYING!"

Mom all of a sudden got up to leave the room, thankfully not into the room Johnny and Roy were. Dad didn't look angry anymore, he looked like he wasn't feeling anything.

"Dad, if I can't go, the boy who was picked with me isn't allowed to go. The girl picked before me couldn't go because the first boy chickened out."

He was silent for a long time. Then he said quietly, "Though it may not seem like it, we do care about you kids. That's why I don't want you to go. But I guess you're right, we aren't a big part of your life and I'm sorry for that. There isn't much for you here. You can go," He went back to his paper.

I felt faint again, "I-I'm leaving on the fifteenth," I then turned around and walked to the basement. Johnny and Roy followed. I slouched into the white chair, emotionally, and seemingly physically, exhausted.

Roy looked a bit awkward and Johnny was curled up in a ball in the green chair, shocked too about what dad said.

"I'll come back tomorrow. Kay guys?"

"Okay." We said, grateful to be alone.

* * *

><p>In the morning Mom and Dad actually came downstairs. Johnny and I were both sitting in the white chair, skimming through the information book. We stood up.<p>

"We're leaving," Said Mom, "We won't be back until the eighteenth, so we came to say good-bye. Do you have a way to get there? We could get you a train ticket."

"Yes, I'm fine." Roy already promised he'd take me.

"And congratulations," She continued then hugged me, "I love you."

"Wait, I _can_ come to visit." I'd left that out, hadn't I.

"We'll think of something fun, for when you do then. Good-Bye," She said, then to Johnny, "I love you too honey, see you soon," She kissed him on the cheek and left.

Dad looked down on me. He was only slightly shorter than Roy. "Good- bye. Both of you. I love you." He bent down, hugged us both and left.

Johnny and I sat back down together. We just sat, until I remembered, something every child should do.

I ran up the stairs and out the front door. Their car was just passing by, with the windows rolled down. Just in time I shouted, "I love you!"

* * *

><p>On the eleventh, three days later, Tyler's voice came shooting down the stairs, "Skyscape! Johnny! And that other guy! Get your buts in the family room," When we got up there Mark was sliding a tape into the ancient VCR.<p>

"Are we watching something?" I asked.

"Yes," Both of them sat down on the couch and Mark motioned for Roy to sit down with them. In order to fit Johnny sat down on his lap, like before, and I sat on the arm rest, but, startling me, Tyler yanked me down onto his lap. Roy started, as if to defend, and Tyler gave him a dirty look.

"What are we watching?" Johnny asked. In response Mark pressed the play button.

Up on the screen we saw a zoom in on a little black haired toddler, toddling around in only a diaper and one sock. She walked up to a smaller baby laying on the floor. Bending over, she pet her blond hair like she was a dog. The camera whirled around to a fifteen year old Tyler feeding another baby, this one not even a month old, in the crook of his arm. Marks pubescent voice sounded, "Ty, look at this," The camera went back to the toddler, but she was no longer near Brianna. For some reason she had pulled three books off the shelf and was continuing to remove more.

A while later we visited Christmas that year. Then it was Brianna and I floating in baby tubes in a pool, Johnny's first birthday, eating Colonial ice cream, me trying to climb a tree, three toddlers dancing to Mr. Blue Sky. In all of them it was just us five kids. It went on with more until I was 8 years old and by then several hours had passed, in which no one said anything.

Mark got up, put the tape away on the shelf and put his shoes on, Tyler right behind him. They came back to me and embraced me tightly and quickly. Without a word they went into the garage, got into their car and left.

* * *

><p>"How about we go in the woods for a while?" It was just Johnny and I, "Seeing as how today's your last chance."<p>

"Sounds good."

After grabbing a bag of chips we went out into the yard. The last snow had fallen and what was left had melted and the trees had even started growing little buds all over them. We followed the same path that we did when Tony took my case.

Johnny somehow sensed my thoughts, "I wonder if Tony knows?"

"Why would he? Only our family and Roy knows. And he'll find out soon enough anyway."

Eventually we got to our old tree, somewhere to the right of the house and very deep in the woods. Funny. I hadn't even noticed where we were headed. It was an old oak, at least a hundred years old. Down low it didn't have very many branches, but up top there was a section thick enough that we could walk on it without much trouble. But to get up there we had to climb another tree and hop from branch to branch.

Eventually we got up. He waited a moment then said, "We should be the ones to tell Tony. If he's a jerk about it, so be it. If he still believes in that crazy idea, whatever. But we should try to tell him."

He was right, of course. I took out my phone, called him, and put it on speaker. It rang six times then went to voicemail. Johnny indicated that I should leave a message, though I would have anyway.

"Hi, Tony… It's Skye…I won the contest and I… I'm leaving tomorrow," Then I hung up.

Thankfully, Johnny didn't say how extremely pathetic that sounded. But out of the blue he said, "You'll call me every day."

"What?"

"You'll call me every day, right?"

"I'll call you every time I have access to a phone that can, or will anyway, reach America. So whenever I'm in a Pokémon Center. Or at my new home…"

"About that! What do you think that is anyway?"

"Dunno. Maybe…" I stopped myself before I continued. What if they put the winners in a home with a new family? That would have been horrible to say to Johnny, let alone think about it myself. He was thinking it too though. He obviously had been for a while.

"You're gonna use all of your vacation time?

I hadn't foreseen his need for reassurance about this and I had no idea how to, aside from just continuing to answer his questions, "I will use every second of it. And the whole time I'll be with you."

We were quiet again, trying to move our thoughts away from that subject for a while. Hadn't winning originally been a good thing? So we talk about happy things for a while.

"What Pokémon do you want to catch?"

"… I know we always plan our team before we start the games, but we always end up wasting the whole time looking for them. I'm just going to catch anything that catches my eye… I hope that doesn't sound shallow."

"It doesn't. What's your favorite one though? Which one would you flip over if you found?"

"Mawile. I'm not sure if it's my favorite but I would want to catch it the most."

"What's your favorite then? Why wouldn't you want to catch it the most?"

"… Jiratchi. I wonder if what happens in the movie is really true… Even if it wasn't though and I actually _had_ a chance to capture it, I don't think people should capture legendary Pokémon."

"Why?"

"Well… What if it's the only one of it's kind?… Maybe they're necessary for balance… Or… I just think that maybe creatures that powerful should be left alone!"

"Good reasons. Oh! Remember when we were at Colonial that one time?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you still going to be a regular old trainer?"

"Well yeah, there's nothing wrong with being a 'regular old' trainer. Plus I think I'll do a little bit of research. There was actually a question about that in the personality section on the test."

"Weird."

"I'll see if I can send you some cool stuff."

"Awesome! Could you send me a Pokédex? Pleeeeeeease!"

"If I can I will, I promise."

"Thanks. Do you think you should bring money?"

"Hmmm, I don't know. I'll bring a couple hundred when I go."

We got back down and chased each other around for a while. When he'd finally caught me and we were rolling around on the ground he yelled, "You won!" In my face, I yelled right back at him, "I won!" Then we rolled away from each other.

"Skye, I don't want you to forget me. But I also want you to enjoy it all as much as possible, so don't obsess about us when you're over there. And ya know, make new friends and all that." I stared at him, "What's wrong?"

"It's just that you've gotten so mature."

"Oh, god! You've gotten gushy!"

"No I haven't!" I pushed him and we chased each other back to the house.

* * *

><p>Roy slept over that night. Even if he wasn't the one driving us there at three in the morning, he still would be.<p>

"Hey," He said as he walked down the stairs. In one hand he held a movie, in the other a popped bag of popcorn, "You guys want to watch Over the Stars?"

"Sounds fun," I said.

We all sat down on the air mattress and watched the movie.

It ended much to fast. It was eight o'clock and we had to get to sleep soon if we didn't want Roy to conk out at the wheel.

I went to the closet to change when Roy said, "Skye, we got you a present."

I turned around to see Johnny holding out a present. I ripped it open (who saves wrapping paper anyway?). Inside were a set of sky blue pajamas with toy story clouds on it.

"Oh, thank you," I was touched, again, by my wonderful friends. I took it out to put it on and underneath was a picture of the three of us at Roy's birthday party. I couldn't remember it being taken. I got choked up, "I'm really going to miss you guys," Then Johnny and I put on our pajamas and we sat down again.

"Do you remember, at the primary testing station, when Johnny took my lunch?"

"I remember you giving it to him."

"I remember bugging him to death for it but at the Pizza Hut…"

It went on like that for a while, we talked about everything, trying to remember it all, like we would forget it all when I left. Then we turned to the clock to find that we had to cut it short.

"Good night," Said Johnny as he crawled into bed.

"Sleep tight," Roy said as he lay down to his pillow.

"See you in the morning," I said. I picked up the Hello Kitty alarm clock and set it for three. It seemed like my body didn't know that I would be waking up earlier, and was determined to follow its normal pattern. I watched the clock next to my pillow as it crept slowly forward in time. Ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, 12 o'clock…

* * *

><p>"Skye!"<p>

"Whaa!" I hit the ceiling as I shot up to look at my little sister standing on John's bunk to be level with mine, "What's going on?" I asked holding my head.

"I thought you were going to leave 20 minutes ago?"

I squeaked and then asked distressed, "What time is it?" I looked over the side of my bed for the alarm clock found it unplugged. "Oh no, I think I fell asleep with it… It must have unplugged when it fell off the bed."

"It's 3:20 seeing as how you were planning on leaving at 3." I stared at her dismayed and in disbelief, "Well get going!"

I jumped over the side of my bed, "Roy! Johnny! The alarm failed, we have to leave now!"

"Huh?"

"Come on!" I ran to the closet and dug out the case. Johnny pulled on his pants and had bent over to pick up his shirt when I dragged him toward the stairs saying, "No time for that."

Roy went to bed fully clothed so he just jumped up and ran. Johnny grabbed the bag of food in the fridge we packed for the trip.

By the garage door we all pulled on our shoes as Brianna was saying, "I woke up to say good-bye again. When I went to bed last night, the fact that I wouldn't see you again for another 6 months kind of hit me again-"

"That's very sweet Brianna, I'm going to miss you too." I said a bit too quickly. I was touched, believe me, but I would be more so, if speed weren't so important right now.

We stood up. Roy and Johnny ran to the car, and I ran after them after a fleeting hug with Brianna. I jumped in the back seat with Johnny just as the car started racing out of the driveway. I turned and looked through the back window into the beautiful night for a last glimpse of my home of the last thirteen years and saw Brianna waving from the driveway.

* * *

><p>We arrived in New York about an hour ago. What was unfortunate, though, was the fact that we were twenty minutes away from the dock, according to the borrowed GPS, and we had 15 minutes to get there.<p>

"Come on, come on!" Johnny murmured nervously to himself. He wouldn't dare direct it at Roy who was speeding like a madman. Wouldn't that be just my luck if he was pulled over now? Well actually no.

I was biting my knuckles so hard I was slightly worried they might be bleeding, but I was too worried about the current situation to bother to pull them out to check. With my left hand I pulled out a sandwich and pushed it at Johnny, he hadn't eaten yet.

"Thanks Skye," He whispered, "But I'm going to puke as it is."

"Well _Sorry,_" Roy, understandably, was very irritable right now. We shut up so he could concentrate.

Three minutes left. "The ocean!" Shouted Johnny.

And there it was, blocking the horizon. There were really no other buildings or docks nearby, which was strange, because it's New York. The S. S. Anne was huge, bigger than the building on the dock. At the front of the building were two sliding glass doors, with a large digital clock above them that now said 1:37.

We parked, got out, and ran up to them. On the other side was a smirking boy a little older than I sitting in a row of chairs. In what looked like a dentist waiting room. Ms. Oetke was in there too as well as another lady standing next to her. There was now one minute left on the clock.

Roy swept me up in a big bear hug, "You'll take care of Johnny, right?"

"I promise," He said softly, "You take care of yourself, alright? I want to see you in one piece when you visit."

"I promise." And he planted a kiss on my forehead and set me down. I heard a sob beside me.

"Skye." He choked out. He was so small in Roy's oversized jacket, "I'm gonna miss you."

I started crying too. I felt so bad, I was leaving him here, alone. Well, "Roy is here, and I'm pretty sure you have Brianna too. And Mom, Dad and our brothers, they do love you." I hugged him, "You're the most important thing in the world to me," Then I whispered, "I know there's a way to get you over there. I can feel it and when I find it, you'll be there in a heartbeat."

"Skye," yelled Roy urgently. There were two seconds left. Roy pushed me inside and the doors closed. I raised my hand and took one last look at them and the tears in their eyes before a second set of darkened doors slid closed.

I turned around to greet the smirking boy but he said first, "You training in your pajamas?"

**End Part 1**


End file.
